After much discussion, Mission Hill elementary school will keep the traditional September to June calendar.
Last spring, the school began to explore an alternative to the current calendar, dividing the number of school days more equally throughout the year.
At Wednesday’s Vernon School District board meeting, Mission Hill principal Lynne Gibson presented the journey from idea to numerous meetings and consultations, to final decision.
“I want to show you the kinds of things that we presented to parents, and I want people to understand that with the balanced calendar, it’s the same number of days in session,” she said.
The traditional school calendar currently runs from September to the end of June, with two weeks off for winter break and two weeks off for spring break. A balanced calendar looks to redistribute some of the nine weeks off in the summer, creating a more balanced year for students and staff.
There are several schools in B.C. currently using a balanced calendar, including two in Richmond.
“Garden City elementary has been very helpful in supporting us through the process in our community and report that the balanced calendar works very well in their community.”
Vernon school trustees and administrators have been supportive of the balanced calendar but Gibson said the final decision was left to a vote. Ballots were given to each family with a student at the school from kindergarten to Grade 5.
Parents voted 35.8 per cent in favour of the balanced calendar and 64.21 per cent against. Staff voted 44 per cent yes and 56 per cent no.
“We had 100 per cent of the ballots returned and the results were that we decided not to move forward with a balanced calendar at this time. I want to acknowledge our committee for their work with this, which was risky and controversial.”
But Gibson said while the results of the vote weren’t what she had hoped, what came out of the whole process of inquiry has had a positive effect on the entire school community.
“There are lots of positive things that have happened, so it’s not about whether it goes through or not, it’s about getting a community like ours to participate in an educational conversation about what’s good for kids.
“Parent involvement is really huge, that speaks to any kind of educational change, the first step is just getting people involved — we spend a lot of time with our parents in terms of their education experience, to develop that whole trust, to let them know that we have your child’s best interest at heart and we care about you as a family. It takes time and it takes walking the talk.
“This has been an engagement of the school community. Parents had a voice, and one of the important things is to change the mindset of parents who perhaps might not have had a positive experience themselves when they were at school.”
Gibson said the school is now looking at ways of keeping the idea of a balanced calendar in the forefront.
“The difference in votes is not such a distance that we couldn’t think about doing a dual track so right now I’m done but I’d really like to pursue that.
“As enrolments decline, could this be a school of choice — I don’t know what the board is deciding but I would like to have a conversation with the board outside of a public meeting.”
