(Becky Zimmer/northeastNOW Staff)

By Brendan Mayer

Horizon School Division 2021-2022 calendar

Horizon School Division students to get five extra days off and longer school days next year

Apr 22, 2021 | 5:48 PM

Horizon School Division students will have five additional days off next school year and 10 minutes will be added to school days.

The days off will take place on October 1, 2021, December 10, 2021, February 11, 2022, April 1, 2022 and May 6, 2022 and are being called personal professional days.

“There was overwhelming support in favour of going this direction,” Horizon School Division Director of Education Kevin Garinger said. “Family time is so crucial for our children. Providing that is beneficial. It’s going to mean less time on buses for about 2,700 of our children. That is over 40 per cent of our kids. It’s an opportunity for families to have more time for appointments to be booked on those days.

Staff will be able to use the personal professional days to finish tasks that may have occasionally been difficult to complete during regular work days.

“The personal professional days will allow teachers to be able to work on personal and professional development and things that they deem are required,” Garinger added. “They will be able to have that time that is really critical for them to meet the needs of each individual learner that is in that classroom.”

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The school division released their 2021-2022 calendar this week.

The school year features 195 operational days and the first day of school for students will be Sept. 1.

“We reduced a couple of non-instructional days that have no impact on students or families or anything like that,” Garinger said. “They were just days at the beginning of the year that we had in place that we felt were not exactly necessary. This is just a way of saying that we recognize the incredible work that staff do. They do a tremendous job preparing for the needs of our children.”

There will be 325 scheduled instructional minutes per school day.

“We will spend more time being able to instruct our children than we have before,” Garinger said.

The calendar was created after consolation with staff, school community councils and employee groups like the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and Horizon Teachers’ Association.

Horizon staff provided feedback this school year through a ThoughtExchange survey.

The school division will also continue to have collaborative learning days for staff which are scheduled for August 27, 2021, September 20, 2021, October 25, 2021 and March 21, 2022.

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Brendan.Mayer@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @BrendanMayer