The Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS) division and the Horizon School Division No. 205 are in the process of exploring adjustments to the school day in order to accommodate the recently announced standardization of instructional hours across the province.
"Our philosophy over the past few years was to get our instructional days to a minimum of 184 days," said John McAuliffe, Superintendent of Education with GSCS. "There were five hours per day, so we had 920 hours of instruction."
McAuliffe explained that to achieve the new 950 hours that is being demanded by the province, only 10 minutes needs to be added to each of the 184 days.
"As I see it, there are three options schools can explore," he said. "The first would be to start the school day earlier; second, depending upon the individual school's lunch hour, some may look at shortening it; and the third would be to extend the end of the day by 10 minutes."
McAuliffe indicated that monthly meetings of the schools' community councils will allow the individual facilities to consult with families, communities and ratepayers about the upcoming changes.
"In the past when we've implemented changes, it has been around this time of year," said McAuliffe. "I believe this is the right time and there is still time to pursue these changes in time for the new school year."
The Horizon School Division struck a calendar committee in January that not only included board representatives but also members from school community councils and support staff.
"They met twice with some time in between and came back with two possible options that we will be taking to the principals in March," said Horizon Director of Education Marc Danylchuk. "They got excellent feedback from their ratepayers on the topic that was taken into consideration when developing the two proposals."
Danylchuk pointed out the government has set the minimum at 950 instructional hours and the division is being quite protective of that minimum, working to ensure all students are the recipient of that time.
Horizon's instructional hours prior to the mandate was 920 hours, like the GSCS.
"We are working in a collaborative way with our stakeholders to continue to improve the learning opportunities and outcomes for all our students in the Horizon School Division," Danylchuk said.
Horizon is working to keep the traditional February and Easter breaks as part of the calendar and unlike the GSCS that is looking at allowing individual schools to set their hours, Horizon is looking to standardize the school calendar across the division.
The timeline for implementation is not a concern, noted Danylchuk, as there were indications this change was coming and the division was prepared to act when the minimum number of hours was set by the government.
"The process has gone a whole lot smoother because we were aware of the impending change," said Danylchuk.
