Yk1 takes three days off this school year
Chair, superintendent say change is part of collective agreement with teachers
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Friday, February 3, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife Education District No. 1 advised parents this week a number of days have been shaved from the rest of this school year.
Students enroled in kindergarten through Grade 8 will not be required to attend classes on March 3, June 2 and June 23, while students at Sir John Franklin High School will be off on April 7 and June 12.
Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) chair John Stephenson said he understands this might be an inconvenience to some parents but added he believes the time off will improve the overall educational experience for both teachers and students.
"If parents have concerns they are free to raise them with the school district but it is an agreement," he said.
"We recognize that for some families this will pose challenges and we're hopeful that they will find positive ways to make it work for their families."
The changes to the Yk1 school year were announced to parents in a memo from school board superintendent Metro Huculak on Tuesday.
In his communique, Huculak points out the teachers in the territory, on average, are working more than 50 hours per week. They also have the highest number of instructional hours in the country, he stated.
"Due to the fact we have considerable hours over the national average ... the three days to work on report cards and assessments are available to teachers to do some of the important work they do within the work day instead of evenings and weekends," Huculak stated. "This will allow teachers a better work/life balance around report card times."
Huculak added that through parent feedback, the board understands at least some parents would have preferred June 22 as a non-student days instead of June 2. However, he stated that having two days off for students at the end of the school year would defeat the purpose of the agreement.
Stephenson said the collective agreement between Yk1 teachers and the board follow a deal that had already been reached between the GNWT and the teachers' association.
"The government has a collective agreement with the NWT Teachers' Association for teachers in communities outside of Yellowknife and the Francophone school board and then Yellowknife Catholic Schools and Yk1 have separate collective agreements," Stephenson said. "Yk1 employs its own teachers. We have our own pension plan, our own health benefits, our own pay scale but it's very much guided by what the government determines."
Teachers with the Catholic school board have not yet reached a new collective agreement and at this point are not part of the pilot project that has reduced classroom time for virtually all of the rest of the teachers in the territory.
