Kingfisher Public Schools has eliminated the monthly early-release days.

The district announced the move in a message to patrons on Wednesday.

“After some careful consideration, we have decided to eliminate all early dismissals moving forward for the remainder of the school year,” the message read.

The lone exception is for high school students on Dec. 4. All other school building will maintain regular school hours on days that were previously designated for early dismissal.

The early release days were originally put in place when KPS instituted Professional Learning Communities within the staff. The early release days allowed for training time for the staff.

“We visited with the administration and teachers which resulted in a strong opinion that they would rather have their students in class,” Interim Superintendent Andy Evans told the KT&FP.

“This allows us to have a consistent school day for teachers, students and parents.”

Evans said there are other benefits.

“It allows us to have STARS on those days,” he said, noting it wasn’t an option before.

“And we realize it can be an issue for parents to arrange child care on early release day and we want to give our parents and students a consistent schedule as much as is possible.”