Amendments to the School Act could give individual school districts more flexibility in choosing when students attend school.Bill 36, introduced at the B.C. legislature Thursday and expected to pass due to a Liberal majority, would give school boards the ability to move away from the 10-month school calendar 鈥� which School District 71 Board of Education vice-chair Janice Caton said is a good thing."The calendar, to me, it's a positive thing. It's looking at the flexibility, and in our district we have the ability to look at what works best for our district and our students," said Caton, who hadn't spoken to the rest of the school board yet and provided her personal opinion. "Anything that allows boards to support the local autonomy and the community for students, to me, is positive."Comox District Teachers' Association president Steve Stanley noted other schools in the province have tried pilot projects with a balanced calendar 鈥� a shorter break in the summer with more breaks in the school year.He said a change in the traditional calendar is worth exploration."Our tradition has always been the summer off but that doesn't necessarily make it the best system; it's just a tradition and I mean it's worth exploring as a possibility," said Stanley."The idea of pacing yourself a little bit better than dropping dead at the end of June and then having eight weeks to recover is always very stressful, so if there was another way to work it out where there was maybe six weeks in the summer and longer breaks between the terms or semesters would be something worth exploring."The board of education would have to consult with parents, teachers and administrators before any changes were made.Caton noted the district's calendar committee will come before the school board at the May 22 meeting with some calendar options. The calendar committee conducted a survey in mid-April asking for a preference between the one- and two-week spring break for Valley schools, and is expected to present the survey findings to the board.The bill would also allow students in kindergarten through Grade 9 to take a mix of online and traditional courses, whereas only students in Grades 10 to 12 can now.Stanley noted online learning is cheaper than traditional models, as teachers have larger classes, and he questioned the government's intentions behind this part of the bill."Are they doing something that's just going to make it cheaper?" he said.writer@comoxvalleyrecord.com
