Surrey school district is continuing to explore the idea of year-round schooling to help cope with overcrowding.
Year-round or "tri-semester" schooling would mean that students at each school would be divided into multiple cohorts, with each group beginning and ending their school years at different times. Students would have a shorter summer break, but more frequent breaks during the year and learn through some of the summer months.
With each cohort taking staggered breaks from school, the tri-semester option would free up more space in Surrey's notoriously overcrowded schools, with a 30 per cent capacity increase possible.
"In the end, even though it looks different, a balanced calendar for schools would have the same number of school days as we currently do," said Neder Dhillon, assistant superintendent for South Surrey and White Rock, at the regular Wednesday (June 11) school board meeting, the last of the year.
While some positives came from the research the district has so far conducted, a host of challenges may also arise if this new schedule is implemented. Although not slated to occur soon, rather years down the line, many trustees voiced concerns with implementing this plan at all.
"I feel like we need to look into this, it’s important to look into it, but I am concerned. It’s something we’d need everybody alongside us on this, and if it’s something that’s not going to work for people, it would be difficult to support. But it’s incumbent on us to look at all solutions given the space crunch we’re having here in Surrey," said trustee Bob Holmes, adding that this option is strictly being looked at for space needs only.
The district met virtually with school officials throughout Canada and the world who have in the past or currently operate on a year-round schedule.
Two different schedules are being explored by Surrey Schools currently.
The first would see four different cohorts in each school learning for three months straight, then having a one-month break, and repeat for the year, while each cohort's start, end and break time would be staggered.
"Using this model though would mean that you would have teachers and classroom spaces being shared, so that would be some challenges. Is it feasible? Absolutely," Reeve said.
The second schedule option would see students and staff at school split into three cohorts. For two of those cohorts, school would last eight months straight followed by a two-week break, school for two weeks, then a two-month break and then another two weeks of school and two weeks of break. The third cohort would have school for four months straight, followed by two weeks off, then two months off, then two weeks of school, two weeks off and back to four more months of school.
With two groups having school eight months straight, Reeve said some breaks placed to break that up would also be necessary.
"This is hugely different than what we currently do in British Columbia and, I would dare say, in most of Canada, so if we do this, we would really need to share the feasibility, challenges and opportunities, and we would need to do a lot of teaching and learning," said Lynda Reeve, assistant superintendent for Panorama and Sullivan Heights.
Many challenges for students, staff and parents were noted in the presentation, including issues for families with multiple children in the district.
"We found that a balanced calendar has the potential to create some disruptions for families, particularly if students are put into different cohorts within the same school or if you have an elementary student and a secondary student who are working on different calendars," Dhillon acknowledged.
Additionally, after speaking to school districts in Calgary and Edmonton that have explored year-round schooling, Dhillon said there was no research to find that a year-round schedule would result in higher academic achievement.
Sports, band and other extracurriculars may also be challenging for students to take part in if they are in school year-round, the assistant superintendent added.
Benefits for tri-semester includes a potential for increase in mental health with more breaks more frequently, school schedules aligning better with most work patterns and a benefit for staff who want more work, particularly those who are only paid for 10 months. Teachers or support staff would be able to fill in for staff during their vacations instead of taking the allotted time off.
"I am worried that if we come to some type of agreement or some type of resolution to this that the government will say ‘well, Surrey solved its problem for now’ and will not allow us to build any more schools or give us the funding for it," trustee Laurie Larsen said.
"It is a concern to me that if we make this sort of effort to do all this and we’re successful, that there will be no more schools in Surrey. I mean there’s none now, there certainly won’t be any more additions, so in one way, it won’t be a plus for us is what I’m trying to say."
Surrey school board voted unanimously to continue exploring the option of year-round schooling with an update coming back to the board next year in June.
