New school calendars approved
Catholic board sees less full days; some public schools see early dismissals
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The numbers are in - there will be less class time for Yellowknife students this fall.
Catholic and public school students will get more full days off next year, as well as early dismissals for some students at the public board.
The changes come as the city's two English school boards finalized their 2017-18 school calendars last week in order to implement a three-year pilot program to reduce instructional hours across the territory starting in September.
The pilot is part of the latest collective agreement between the GNWT and Northwest Territories Teachers' Association, which was ratified last September.
"We've aligned our days as much as we possibly could with the other school districts in regards to when (students) are off," said Claudia Parker, Yellowknife Catholic Schools superintendent, on March 15. "But there was no way of aligning them completely."
Catholic board trustees unanimously voted to adopt the new calendar at their school board meeting that afternoon.
Although schools are making changes, the NWT Education Act still needs to be amended in order for the restructuring to be allowed. Currently, students in Grades 7 to 12 are required to spend at least 1,045 hours in class a year, while students in Grades 1 through 6 need at least 997 hours of instruction annually.
A bill to amend the act is currently being studied by a standing committee of MLAs. If passed, it would require students in Grades 1 to 12 to spend at least 945 hours a year in class.
The new Catholic calendar includes as many as nine days for teachers to work on improving instructional practices while students are not at school. Two of those days are Aug. 30 and 31, before school starts for all Catholic district students on Sept. 1. Aug. 31 was the first day of class for kindergarten to Grade 7 students in the 2016-17 academic year, according to the school board's current calendar.
Teachers will also get one day without classes in October, November, January, February, April, May (for junior kindergarten to Grade 7) and June.
Christmas break will fall on Dec. 21 to Jan. 3 for Catholic school students.
Parker said the reductions amount to 1,002 hours of class time a year for St. Patrick High School students, and 949 hours year at Weledeh Catholic School and St. Joseph School.
Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) approved its calendars at a school board meeting Tuesday night.
Public school students will start their next academic year on Sept. 5, while teachers get a day allocated specifically for improving instructional practices on Aug. 30, before school begins.
Sir John Franklin High School students will be off for two full days during the year - Nov. 2 and April 12 - as part of the pilot program.
They will also be dismissed early most Thursdays throughout the year, with exceptions around exam time in January and June, according to the approved calendar.
That means their day will end at 2:30 p.m. instead of 3:30 p.m., according to Ed Lippert, Yk1 assistant superintendent.
High school winter break will run from Dec. 23 to Jan. 7.
Public school students in junior kindergarten to Grade 8, meanwhile, will be off for an additional four days throughout the year: Nov. 1, Dec. 22, Feb. 16 and June 4.
Winter break will begin on Dec. 22 and end Jan. 7.
But they will not have early dismissal times like the high school.
"We first looked at doing early dismissals for everyone, but we realized that doesn't work for the elementary schools," said Lippert.
"Trying to get the kids out of the school at that time and make sure they're all picked up and out of there is difficult, and also it's difficult for parents in terms of finding childcare."
He said the school board sent surveys to parents about the calendars before plotting out different ideas with staff.
Yk1 wanted to keep calendars similar at all its schools, but the high school needed more hours per year to meet the Alberta high school curriculum, according to Lippert.
Altogether, the public school reductions mean approximately 1,053 hours of class a year for Sir John students, while those in elementary and middle school will have between 980 and 1,000 hours, Yk1 superintendent Metro Huculak said.
"We did a lot of collaboration with parents and with staff," he said.
"Each year you do a calendar, it's hard to get 100 per cent buy-in. But we look at what the majority of people want and whether it fits in with programming for students and then we go with that."
He and Lippert said the school board heard concerns from parents about daycare. Yk1 plans to arrange those services on the additional days students will be out of class.
