General Administration AP 130: School Year

Background

The Board expects the Superintendent to prepare an annual calendar of school operational and instructional days and present it to the Board for approval no later than March 31.

Definitions

Instructional Day means a day on which students are present in school and attendance is recorded.

Operational Day means a day on which teachers are required to be at work.

Procedures

1. Operational days shall include:
   1. Teachers’ Convention – Two days;
   2. Teachers’ Institute – one day
2. Operational days may include:
   
   1. Preparation – two(or more) days prior to the first day of school;
      – one half day (or more) at the end of the school year;
   2. In-service day – at least one day at Division level;
   3. Parent-Teacher Interviews – at least one day.
3. An attempt will be made to incorporate an extended Christmas period (2 weeks) to begin no later than December 23.
4. Spring Break will include up to five school days and will normally be the week preceding or following Good Friday.
5. Schools will not operate on statutory holidays.
6. In preparing the calendar, the Superintendent or designate shall consult with locally elected officials of the Alberta Teachers’ Association and the Canadian Union of Public Employees No. 2545, the Administration of Fort McMurray Roman Catholic Separate School Division, and Fort McMurray Public School Division Administrators.
7. Individual school operational calendars shall follow the division calendar and will be submitted by the Principal with the School Education Plan to the Superintendent for approval. Requests for deviation from the division calendar are to be avoided and requests for an alternate calendar must be sent to the Superintendent a year in advance.
8. The minimum length of the school year for instructional hours is 5 to 10 hours greater than the below requirements of the Ministry of Education:
   

   Early Childhood Development Program (ECDP)	475 hours per year
   ECS Full-Day	950 hours per year
   ECS Half Day	475 hours per year
   Grades 1 – 9	950 hours per year
   Grades 10 – 12	1000 hours per year