SASKATOON – The Prairie Spirit school division has adopted a longer calendar year for 9,900 students around Saskatoon.
The division’s 2013/14 calendar year meets the new provincial requirement to provide a minimum of 950 hours of face-to-face instructional time.
For this school year, approximately 925 hours of teaching is scheduled for the 45 schools.
Concerns over school hours were raised by the provincial auditor in 2011. Before, there was a variance of approximately 30 hours between school divisions.
The length of a Prairie Spirit school day will be five hours and nine minutes and early Thursday dismissals will be discontinued.
The new calendar year includes a two-week Christmas break, a week break in February and a 10-day break in April.
Classes are scheduled to start after the Labour Day long weekend, September 3, and will finish on June 25.
“We believe the new calendar will maintain our focus on student learning while also supporting students, staff members and families,” said Board Chair Larry Pavloff.
The Prairie Spirit Board of Education took around 1,100 parent and student comments into consideration from an online survey.
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