Tuesday, January 22, 2019 ~ LANGFORD.
~ Mary P Brooke, West Shore Voice News
The school calendars for 2019-2020, 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 were presented for review at tonight’s Sooke School District 62 (SD62) board meeting.
Tomorrow these calendars will become public, through the school district’s internal communications system… to parents, teachers, CUPE and administration.
“These are draft calendars,” says SD62 Chair Ravi Parmar. Input will be received from parents and the school community for a month before the board sets to approving the calendars at their board meeting on February 25.
The length of spring break was not an issue for debate as it was in previous years. Spring break will be two weeks long. During the first week the schools will still be operating and open, for use by the general community for event bookings and special classes. This is a source of revenue for SD62. In the second week schools will be closed, with SD62 saving on salaries, heating costs, and transportation services.
The two weeks for spring break in the General Calendar will be:
- 2019-2020: will be March 16 through 27 (actual last day of school March 13, and with weekends, seeing classes back on March 30).
- 2020-2021: will be March 15 to 26 (actual last day of school March 12 , and with weekends, seeing classes back on March 29).
- 2021-2022: will be March 21 to April 1 (actual last day of school March 18 , and with weekends, seeing classes back on April 4).
There are different schedules for the Distributed Learning (online) stream.
The calendars — which include minimum Instructional Days as mandated by the Ministry of Education (853 hours for Kindergarten; 878 hours for Grades 1 to 7; and 952 hours for Grades 8 to 12), Professional Development Days (creating six non-instructional days for students), Winter and Spring Breaks, Exam Schedules, semester beginnings/ends, reporting periods, and Statutory Holidays — are planned well in advance.
Three years of calendars allows for the School District and teachers to plan their Pro-D Days and other obligations, and so that families and staff can plan their vacations, travel and events throughout the year. The broader community is — by default — is affected by these calendars, which includes employers, service businesses, recreation providers, child care arrangements, and transit services.
Alignment of the calendars with SD61 and SD63 will be achieved “for the most part”, it was stated by SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson.