Decision Day for SD52 on School Calendar issue

SD52 will return to
considering the School Calendar
for 2017 at a session tonight

School District 52 officials are scheduled to meet once again tonight in a special Session outside of the regular Board meetings, hoping to bring some resolution to the controversial issue of what next years School Calendar will look like.

The topic has been one of much discussion since the last SD52 Board meeting of mid March, with one of the three concepts to be considered, that of a two week break from March 13 to 24 defeated at that time in a tie vote.

The Option two model was discarded from further consideration, despite information provided to the Board that feedback from parents and stakeholders had stated a preference for the two week break earlier in the month.

That would appear to leave the School District with the two remaining options for review tonight, the first of a two week break from March 20th to 31st of 2017, or continuing with the current model of a One week Spring break from March 20-24 of 2017.

The background to the process can  be found from the notes of the most recent Board meeting which were recently posted to the SD52 website

A look at the three calendars can be reviewed here.

The decision to abandon Option Two and move forward to consider the other concepts, made for a decision that stirred up some social media commentary related to the decision, with a fair bit of anger at times directed towards the School Board membership for their stance at the time.

It all leaves SD officials with much to consider tonight as part of their discussion, focused on the review of the remaining options, as well as the background that public comment and stakeholder concerns offer to the process.

Also looming large for SD officials is how they can resolve the current split on the issue on the Board, a situation which has been exacerbated by having one position on the Board still unfilled after the November departure of trustee Judy Carlick-Pearson.

That has created the ongoing prospect of a tie vote at SD meetings, with only six member available to vote on many issues that the School Board considers.

No official notice of the meeting has been posted to the SD52 website, leaving residents with only a March 15th media release to provide guidance as to the nature of tonight's session.

You can review some of the past items of note from the discussion from our archive page here.