In addition, the move could increase options for students while decreasing class size and increasing teacher salaries. The longer school day and year — roughly 213 instruction days instead of the traditional 180 — would bump teacher salaries up by about 50 percent without changing the hourly pay rate.

"This highly trained resource is for the most part working at 70 percent capacity, which I think most businessmen would find to be unacceptable," Sperry said.

Sperry added the model is not the same as the year-round schedule now used by some districts. The new model has more flexibility, he said, allowing high school students to cut their school days in half but take more trimesters each year.

Alternatively, a student could opt to take more hours and trimesters and finish his or her high school requirements by the end of the sophomore year.

Elementary students would also have more choices, with the choice between attending school in the morning session or in the afternoon. The overlap time between the two sessions would be filled by fine arts instructors or other specialists, so classroom teachers could handle both sessions in one day.

That would mean a longer workday for teachers, with about seven hours of instruction instead of 5.5 hours.

"We knew this proposal would raise some eyebrows. It's a radical idea, but the problem we're facing is also radical," said Mel Miles, Davis School District personnel director.

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E-mail: estewart @desnews.com