Later Christmas break?
Posted Mar 21, 2011 04:19:35 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
As you settle back into a school day routine today, you might want to know our local school boards are considering changes to next year’s school calendar.
With Christmas falling on a Sunday, virtually all boards in Ontario are supporting a move that would see the Christmas break begin a full week later than usual next year.
“School boards, almost unanimously across the province, have submitted a later departure date for their students,” says Catherine Fife, a trustee with the region’s public school board and the president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.
That later departure date would be Friday, December 23rd which, according to Fife, would alleviate a handful of parental concerns.
For one, families have a hard time finding childcare in the week leading up to Christmas. At the same time, many parents are working for that week and unable to spend the time at home. Fife says she’s also heard from parents who are planning to book the first week of January as a vacation so they can have more family time should the calendar be modified.
“Our challenge as school boards is to get those 194 instructional days in and the calendars as submitted align with those legislative requirements,” Fife notes. “So what boards have submitted is a modified school calendar for the 2011-2012 school year.”
Most boards offered three options for a modified calendar:
* Maintain the status quo, whereby the calendar would remain the same as it was this year and students would have a full week off before Christmas Day
* Depart for Christmas on December 23, 2011 and return to class on January 9, 2012
* Depart for Christmas on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 and return to class on Wednesday, January 4, 2012
Fife says the school calendar is always a work in progress as boards try to find what’s best for students and their families.
Boards had to submit their modified calendars by March 1st. Ministry approval for the change is expected later this spring.
