After a vast pool of positive feedback from the recently introduced division-wide aligned calendar, the Wolf Creek Public Schools board of trustees approved a continuation of the calendar for the 2015/16 academic year and a draft for the 2016/17 year.
Looking at the responses to the system, the board feels there is support and positive benefits to every stakeholder group; principals and assistant principals, teachers, parents and students.
Going into creating two new calendars, assistant principal of people services Jayson Lovell says the division made sure to stick to some guidelines. “We wanted to make sure as much as possible that the semesters were balanced.”
Diploma dates, which are held several times over the year, needed to be taken into account so students were not given too many days off for teacher professional development when preparation and instructional time is critical.
“We wanted to make sure the strategic placement of breaks was there as well, for both staff and students,” said assistant principal of technology services Mark McWhinnie.
For the upcoming 2015/16 school year, professional development days will fall almost regularly on every second Friday.
School is slated to start Aug. 31. “Recognizing we wanted the students to have a full five-day week,” said McWhinnie.
Feb. 1 will start off the second semester with a four-day week.
One of the biggest challenges the aligned calendar has faced is making sure students in upper level classes have enough instructional time with teachers.
This year had 16 professional developments days and next year — before the trustees amended and approved the calendar at their Tuesday, Feb. 17 meeting — had those 16 days plus two division days away from school. “I don’t think we can go up to that total level of 18 . . . I think we’re already really pushing that as it is,” said trustee Barb Walker.
“I know for myself I would personally like to see one less (professional development) day in that school year,” she added.
The issue was solved by McWhinnie, who suggested instead of one less professional development day, an instructional day is added to the calendar.
When it comes to compressing content into instructional days, the division believes in the success of the system. “I’m confident we can have some solutions that will address that,” said Lovell.
“We’ve also lengthened the times students are going to school,” he added.
Trustee Bob Huff is concerned that, after the division has invested so much into the aligned calendars, test marks may not go up as a result of better-prepared teachers coming out of the professional development days. “What are we going to say to the kids? . . . In theory, this is wonderful.”
He says, if student marks drop, the public is going to believe that is the kind of system the division buys into. “I worry for these high school kids.”
“There’s a lot of work going onto making sure the quality of the activities is of the highest level,” said Lovell.
Walker and Huff both feel a lack of communication between the division, the school, the parents and the community is hindering the project.
With more information being fed to stakeholders online, Walker feels it is leaving older parents and families who are not as comfortable online, out of the loop. “That’s a communication problem for principals to consider.”
However, the division feels the challenges brought on by the system are outweighed by its strengths. “The most important being the opportunities for our staff to get together and discuss students. That’s really what it’s all about,” said Lovell.
“And that’s what we’ve heard most from out staff,” he added.
“It’s not just the struggling student. It’s also important our high achieving students have the opportunity to be heard and discussed,” McWhinnie added.
Introducing the teachers to working together to teach students with more of a village mentality is also prepping them for Inspiring Education curriculum redesign. “Our teachers will have to work together,” said Lovell.
2014/15 feedback
In a survey on the calendar’s effects on the division, the division received 305 teaching staff responses.
In response to a question whether the professional development days assist with student interventions, 70 per cent of the division’s teachers provided feedback and 81 per cent of the respondents agreed it was beneficial.
“I think that’s a really strong level of support,” said Lovell.
Of the participating teachers, 72 per cent support the continuation of staff collaboration professional development days.
There were 1,178 student responses. “Students are happy with the aligned calendar,” said Lovell.
Of the students who responded to the survey, 88 per cent feel the collaboration professional development days that come with the aligned calendar is important for their learning and should be continued.
From the 844 parent responses, the division was also able to deduce how easy it has been for parents to fit the aligned calendar into their schedules.
Of the participating parents, 77 per cent who responded want the aligned calendar to continue.