Northern Altered School Year Coming To An End

Northern Altered School Year Coming To An End

Thursday, January 20, 2005 at 13:51

Officials with northern Saskatchewan’s largest school division are defending the decision to discontinue the altered school year.

The three-year experiment will officially come to a close at the end of this school year.

Starting this fall, all schools within the Northern Lights School Division will adopt the same calendar — which will see classes start around the beginning of September and conclude in late June.

School division education director Ralph Pilz says the biggest reason for the move back was the need for more preparation time for teachers, especially with regards to new math and literacy assessements the school division is undertaking.

Pilz admits the board made this decision with a lot less consultation than what went into the move to the altered school year three years ago, but doesn’t feel it was needed.

Pilz says the board did talk to numerous teachers, principals and local school trustees before making its decision.