No kid likes going back to school, so when it’s that time of the year again, they’re all hoping Labour Day falls later in the week. In 2015, they would’ve hit the jackpot and had a whole extra week off, had it not been for a recent amendment to the Education Act that allows schools to begin before Labour Day.
“In particular, (the amendment) allows us to start planning for the 2015-2016 school year,” said Kevin Garinger, director of education with the Horizon School Division. “It allows divisions to start before the long weekend with students, which is a positive thing. Before, we would’ve started before the long weekend without students.”
The amendment gives school boards the ability to open beginning Sept. 1 if Labour Day is going to fall on any date after Sept. 6, 7, or 8. Otherwise, beginning after Labour Day will remain the same.
A week may not seem like much time to lose, but for school divisions that have to fit a minimum of 950 hours into the school year, that’s a lot of time to make up. Without this amendment, the calendars would be less flexible and they would have to resort to alternative measures such as longer school days and/or losing spring break. According to Garinger, that’s a break everyone appreciates and students need it.
Moreover, because different schools have different needs (such as construction issues, contract conditions, etc.), having that extra time would make it easier to create a schedule while still creating a relative consistency across the province.
“They’re trying to maintain some level of consistency with respect to start dates,” said Garinger. “We cannot start any earlier is what we’ve been told. Starting a bit later is an option, but we haven’t decided that yet.”
While the new Sept. 1 start date is now an option, it won’t guarantee consistency due to the differing needs of schools. School boards can still apply to make changes in the calendar, which Garinger said is a good thing because only school boards know their own needs. Thus, they’d still have a certain amount of control.
“Calendars aren’t designed in a vacuum. Everybody has a kind of input as to what would work,” said Connie Bailey, president of the Saskatchewan Schools Boards Association. “Some divisions have certain schools that have certain calendars that would meet their needs better.”
The amendment may not seem like such a big deal for most people, but for school staff and students, it has much larger effects. While staff members are celebrating scheduling flexibility, students will most likely be moaning about summer holidays being cut short. In the end, however, they’d realistically only be losing a couple of the last days of summer.
“I don’t anticipate any reaction (from parents). Whatever school divisions have to do in terms of their start time, we will do and inform parents and students,” said Garinger. “We don’t anticipate there will be huge issues. There has to be some give and take around start times.”
