After teachers agreed to a six-year contract with the provincial government on Thursday of last week, school has been in since Monday. And although a total of 14 days of the 2014/15 school year were missed, the superintendent of School District 63, Dr. Keven Elder, says the year will take place as originally planned.
“We don’t have any means by which we can add time to the school year, either by hours in a day or by days in a year. So, the year will go on as originally scheduled,” said Elder.
“Some people were wondering about removing a week from the two week spring break, but in reality the time from that week was already accounted for by extending the length of the school day, so we would have no net gain of learning time by moving those minutes back in,” he said.
Elder continued to say that the plan is for administrative staff to work with teachers, support staff, parents and students.
The goal will be to compress certain projects and sections of the curriculum to make sure that the whole curriculum is met properly by the end of the year.
“It’s an unusual circumstance but I know we’re going to adjust well,” Elder said.
For secondary schools, the two semesters would have been unbalanced, but the District worked with the ministry to change the exam dates to ensure both semesters will be equally balanced at 83 and 84 days respectively.
“The original exam schedule was supped to be January 19 but instead it will be pushed back to February 2 to balance out the two semesters,” Elder explained.
“All programs and everything else will to carry on as if it was a normal year and we’ve been working to make sure we are more than ready.”
Elder said the only other consideration is to make sure last year’s school year is put away properly.
“Administration will be working with teachers to ensure the 2013/14 school year is closed off with proper marks for all students,” he said.
reporter@peninsulanewsreview.com