@gettin, thought - whelp, I dunno about all that - but apparently only two days ago, the head of the Fairfax Education Association was on a chat and..............well:
A few elementary schools implemented Monday early dismissals in the early 1970’s. The school board did not actually vote to allow this or to allow more schools to switch to this schedule, as can be seen from these excerpts from the minutes of a meeting held February 25, 1971:
“Summary of Actions Taken
Length of School Day.
It was the consensus of the Board that the Superintendent and staff could assist schools in moving to a modified schedule where desired (no motion by the Board)…. “Mr. Davis made some … remarks to the report on the modified elementary school day, indicating that several elementary schools that have extended their day are closing one-half day early per week. He stated he had not realized before the extent to which this adds to the clerical and administrative burden of these staffs… Mr. Harold Ford, Area IV Superintendent, presented the details of the report regarding the elementary school day, indicating it was desirable from the standpoint of bringing about the program going on in the elementary schools…The present regular elementary school schedule contains 30 hours and 50 minutes per week, while the modified schedule calls for 31 hours per week. The modified schedule runes from 8:30 a.m., to 3:00 p.m., except one day per week from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m….”
Originally only 1 ½ hours were cut from the Monday schedule. Before the switch, the elementary school week was 30 hours and 50 minutes long–the same length it is today.
more here:
http://www.fullschooldays.org/
you gotta scroll down but apparently, the tl/dr is that most ppl are cool with early Monday according to them.