Kids in the Interlake School Division got sent home an hour early Wednesday.

It's part of a new program that gives teachers more time for prep work and follow up with administration.

Sept. 17 was the first day of the program that affects 21 schools in the division.

On the third Wednesday of every month, excluding December and June, class will finish at 2:30 p.m., instead of 3:30 p.m., for the Interlake School Division.

Clare Antell said she got notice last week that her daughter's school would finish an hour early.

"They take mail home every day and it was just a letter, and then we got a call Monday evening to say, ‘Don't forget, school finishes an hour earlier,’" she said.

The school board says the extra hour will let teachers discuss some of the challenges in the classroom, strategies that are working well and ones that need improvement.

Superintendent Christine Penner said the teachers aren't authorized to stay late an hour to do this based on union rules.

"The Interlake School Division is part of The Manitoba Teachers Society, so you know their workday ends at 3:30 when the school day is over, or whenever the school day is over,” said Penner.

The school division said it contacted all the daycares in region and they were willing and able to help out by allowing kids to come an hour early.

But for Beverly Ballentine, who picks up her granddaughter from school daily and works in a daycare,even that requires adjustments.

“Our daycare…can only take so many kids and once our daycare is full, then parents have to find another means for their kids,” she said.

The Interlake School Division said some of their classrooms already had extended school days, so this doesn't affect teaching hours at those schools.

In some cases, two or three minutes was added on to the end of each school day to make up the difference.

The school division said this is something they've been planning for the last two years.

They looked at other school divisions where they said the program has been carried out with much success.