The Saskatchewan Rivers School Division board has approved the school calendar for 2022-2023. The process was completed during a special meeting on Wednesday.
Saskatchewan Rivers has a calendar committee with various representatives .
“I have arranged for the Calendar Committee to get together and discuss and get some feedback from our principals and senior administration. So it’s a nice thing for the board knowing that they have got lots of representative perspective on that calendar,” director of education Robert Bratvold said.
The committee is made up of representatives from teachers, CUPE, SCC and Saskatchewan Rivers Students for change and they meet to create the calendar for the board to approve.
“For us right from the very beginning those students, staff, teachers, parent views on the creation of the calendar and that’s how we involve them and then we get feedback from senior administration and principals, so that’s part of the process as well. But we don’t actually go out and do a majority rules vote, we build it right from the start with those voices,” he explained.
In the draft, school will begin on Thursday Sept. 1 next school year, with teachers having assigned teacher time on Aug. 29, 20 and 31. The teacher convention is scheduled for March 17, 2023. Christmas break is from Dec. 21 to Jan. 4, 2023. The February break is from Feb. 21 to 24 and there is an April break from April 11 and runs until April 17. The last day of classes will be on June 29 of 2023.
“And there is a few regulations around how long Christmas can be and has to be a minimum required break of this length of time and no more than this many days. There is lots of those little regulations and boxes to check off,” Bratvold said.
The Ministry of Education has to confirm compliance before the calendar is official.
The calendar includes 315 minutes per day of instruction per day and 960.75 hours of instruction per school year which is slightly higher than the Education Act regulation of 950 hours of instruction.
The Ministry has approved an early start for the next school year, with school beginning before Labour Day.
According to the Education act, any year when the statutory holiday occurs on September 5 or later, the education minister can choose to start school during the previous week before the holiday. Labour Day is Sept. 5.
“And we make sure there is a good balance of small and large schools, rural and urban schools, high school and elementary schools. It is a great conversation that we have around the table with different perspectives coming to a consensus,”
The calendar includes 315 minutes per day of instruction per day and 960.75 hours of instruction per school year which is slightly higher than the Education Act regulation of 950 hours of instruction.
The Ministry has approved an early start for the next school year, with school beginning before Labour Day.
According to the Education act, any year when the statutory holiday occurs on September 5 or later, the education minister can choose to start school during the previous week before the holiday. Labour Day is Sept. 5 this year.
The legislation to start school after Labour Day was introduced in 2011.
