The proposed 2015/16 school calendar will see students in School District No. 46 (SD46) take two weeks off for spring break and work within a shortened year that will likely result in longer days.
The proposed changes were agreed upon by the majority of trustees at the March 10 school board meeting where next year’s calendar was discussed. The changes must now be passed by employee groups before being officially adopted at the end of the month.
The board brought forward a motion from their committee of the whole meeting to move to a two-week spring break next year in order to better align with other school districts and save money on staffing costs during the extended break.
Board chair Betty Baxter said SD46 was one of only eight school districts within the Lower Mainland area that were still scheduling one week off in March.
“Some of our discussion at committee of the whole was about harmonizing with the Lower Mainland school districts in terms of things like music and sports camps, etc., that impact our Sunshine Coast residents as well,” Baxter said.
Concern over how the change would affect unionized workers in schools was raised by trustee Christine Younghusband, who asked that SD46 work to minimize the impact with CUPE.
A motion to negotiate a letter of understanding with CUPE to minimize the impact was supported by the majority of the board, as was the proposed move to the two-week spring break, which would see students on vacation from March 14 to 28 next year.
Complicating the 2015/16 calendar, however, is the newly negotiated teachers’ contract that states school must start on the Tuesday after Labour Day and end on the last Friday in June.
The wording means schools will start nearly a week later next year, on Sept. 8, 2015, and end a couple of days sooner on June 24, 2016. The 2014/15 school year started on Sept. 2 and ends June 26.
The shortened year and the extended spring break leaves 178 instructional days in the 2015/16 school year, as compared to 186 instructional days in the 2014/15 school year.
Assistant superintendent of schools Greg Kitchen said high school students are required to have 952 hours of instructional time each year, and elementary students must receive 878 hours, so some adjustments will have to be made in order to provide enough instructional time in the new calendar.
He added that SD46 is currently in discussions with the Sunshine Coast Teachers’ Association (SCTA) about how to make it work.
“We have realized a willingness on the SCTA’s part to flex the length of the day to accommodate the required numbers of minutes,” Kitchen said, noting discussions are ongoing.
“We anticipate that our elementary schools will probably be in the range of 10 or 11 minutes longer, and our secondary schools may be in the range of 20 or 21 minutes longer given the shortening of the year and the closure dates and the requirement to meet the minimum numbers of hours.”
