The Ministry of Education’s decision to change the legislation regarding their edict not to begin a school year before Labour Day is being met with approval from various educational sectors.
The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation issued a release stating they were in favour of legislative amendments announced by Education Minister Don Morgan about the proposed changes that will allow a school year to start prior to Labour Day in years when Labour Day falls after Sept. 5.
The administration at the South East Cornerstone Public School Division also voiced approval of the move, which will now give the school calendar builders a little flexibility in designing a new 197-day, 950-hour academic year.
The move was precipitated by the fact that Labour Day falls on Sept. 7 in 2015, which would have created a major problem. And 2016 wasn’t looking that promising either with a Sept. 5 Labour Day.
Randy Cline, STF’s vice-president said “we see the introduction of this legislation as a first step in addressing some of the issues impacting teacher and student time.
“This change allows school boards to be more flexible in creating calendars in order to reflect local needs.”
Cornerstone’s director of education, Lynn Little, who has worked on school scheduling as part of her previous duties as superintendent of education, said she knows first-hand how challenging it can be to design a school calendar that teachers, families and administrators can all embrace.
“This change is absolutely positive because it will allow us to get those 950 hours in and still organize all the (school year) breaks,” Little said. “If the legislated changes aren’t made, we couldn’t have done it without cancelling a break in February or reducing a Christmas or Easter break or lengthening the school day. This gives us a little predictability and continuity for the future.”
Little agreed the 2015-16 school year would have been the most challenging with the latest re-start imaginable of a school year.
“Frankly, if the change wasn’t made, the traditional February break would have been in jeopardy,” Little added.
Kelly Hilkewich, the deputy director of education for Cornerstone, is charged with the task of forming a committee that will come up with three options for a proposed school year calendar in 2015-16. Those options are then presented to all Cornerstone employees who vote for their preferred dates/breaks, with the results going to the board of trustees for approval or rejection. The public board also works in tandem with the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division and its board to provide continuity in scheduling for students throughout southeast Saskatchewan.
“We were contemplating an amendment was in the works, so Kelly waited a bit to work on this item,” said Little, noting that usually the options are voted on and a new school calendar adopted early on in the new year, but this slight delay would probably not hinder the process.
Cline noted the teaching profession supports changes to the school year and school day that will focus on creating optimal teaching and learning environments for students based on sound, current educational research and developed collaboratively and transparently.
