By Clark Stork

North East School Division approves 2018-2019 calendar

Mar 21, 2018 | 10:00 AM

Northeast area students now know their school schedule for the next year.

The North East School Division (NESD) held their monthly meeting Tuesday in Tisdale and finalized the 2018-2019 school calendar. Director of Education Don Rempel said the schedule followed their recent plans.

“The calendar this year is very similar to previous years,” Rempel said. “We’ve got school starting after Labour Day, two Fridays with vacation days that follow the week of student-led conferences, and we end school before June 30.”

The Ministry of Education mandates 960 hours of instructional time be implemented within the calendar year. The NESD managed to accomplish the benchmark over 186 student days. Rempel said one change the board to make was using Jan. 3 and 4 as holidays to round out the Christmas break, but couldn’t find two other days to make that work.

“People would like to find a couple days instead of having the students come back on that Thursday and Friday in January. [Are] there two days we can move without disrupting other pieces of the calendar to make that Christmas work? We don’t think we have that,” Rempel said.

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The board also approved the calendar for White Fox School. Students at White Fox will go to school for 175 instructional days but will spend more time at the school. Rempel said busing efficiency was the reason behind the alternate schedule.

“We have all the buses meet in White Fox, and a couple buses carry the high school kids into Nipawin. If we run a longer day in White Fox, we are more efficient,” Rempel said.

Teacher days for the NESD are 194, and White Fox teachers will work 183 days.

Also announced during the meeting was an alteration to the Betty (Burlock) Hodge Scholarship Award. The scholarship awards money to a graduating Gronlid School student and to a grade 12 student at Melfort and Unit Comprehensive Collegiate (MUCC). Gronlid School no longer has grades 10, 11, or 12, so the board decided to award one scholarship to a former Gronlid School student who will graduate from MUCC.

clark.stork@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @ClarkStork