In the recent past, Mecca Glen School has been receiving inquires on its school zone traffic lights, which are flashing at unusual times during the day.
While public opinion figured the lights were malfunctioning, principal Alger Libby says the Mecca Glen’s school day start and end times have changed this year to 8:05 a.m. and 2:40 p.m.
School zone times for that stretch of Highway 53 are now in effect from 7: 30 to 8:30 a.m., 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., and 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. “Those are very unusual school zone times,” said Libby.
The changes to the school’s times are a result of Wolf Creek Public School’s new division wide calendar, which puts every school in the division on the same schedule. This means professional development days all fall on the same day for each of the schools.
“What we’ve tried to do is have a professional development day every second Friday,” said Libby.
“The teachers are working together collaboratively on those Fridays,” he added.
Some schools within the division had to lengthen their school days in order to compensate for the professional development days and ensure the students were still before a teacher for the allotted amount of instructional time mandated by Alberta Education.
Mecca Glen also needed times that would allow for busses to drop students off at the rural school and the Ponoka Secondary Campus.