YCS moves to shorten school days
Board passes motion to reduce high school class hours to 1,000 a year
Kirsten Fenn
Northern News Services
Friday, February 17, 2017
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife Catholic Schools passed a motion to reduce class time at St. Patrick High School at its regular board meeting Wednesday night.
Yellowknife Catholic Schools trustee Amy Kennedy, left, introduces a motion to reduce class time at St. Patrick High School at the board's meeting Wednesday night, while trustee John Dalton reads his notes. - Kirsten Fenn/NNSL photo |
The motion gives the school board direction to bring the minimum number of instructional hours for students in Grades 8 through 12 down to 1,000 a year starting in 2017-18, according to trustee Amy Kennedy, who introduced the motion at the public meeting.
"Generally the idea is if our students are writing exams based on the Alberta curriculum, and Alberta has determined that they need 1,000 hours of instructional time in order to get the instruction needed to pass those exams and learn that material, then we should not set our minimum at a lower point," Kennedy said.
The motion follows a recent memorandum of understanding between YSC and the Northwest Territories Teachers' Association to reduce class time by up to 100 hours a year starting this fall.
Superintendent Claudia Parker said the agreement was signed Jan. 31, and parents were sent a letter informing them of the decision.
The memorandum brings the Catholic school board in tandem with Yellowknife Education District No. 1 and schools across the NWT, which are taking part in a three-year pilot program to reduce class time and take pressure off overworked teachers starting next school year. The pilot program was agreed to in the teacher's association's collective agreement with the GNWT last September.
Trustee John Dalton said including YCS students in Grades 8 and 9 in the reduction makes sense.
"They're feeder years to the high school, feeder years to the exam writing that they're going to have to take and the study schedules and everything else," Dalton said. "I wholeheartedly support it."
But before the board can apply that reduction in class time, the NWT Education Act needs to be amended.
The current legislation requires NWT students in Grades 7 to 12 spend at least 1,045 hours a year in class.
"The direction that we have is to go ahead as a pilot project for next year," Parker said.
"We're supposed to have our calendars in by the end of February for approval."
She said the board plans to reduce hours for elementary school students as well, but they won't be set any lower than 945 a year.
Students in Grades 1 to 6 are currently required to be in school for a minimum 997 hours annually.
"We signed a memorandum of understanding about the school calendars so we could move ahead for next year," Parker said. "But we're still under negotiations in regard to the full collective agreement."
The board's next meeting to discuss a new collective agreement with the teacher's association is in March, Parker said.
