Discussions

So I heard this was going through for next year. Whose stupid idea was this? They did a survey, I haven't heard of one person for this. PD days will be half days on Wednesdays. How does this make any sense?

Some will be mornings, some afternoons!

They have rotated between Wednesday and Thursday half days, one is morning the next pm.  
 
I agree with you, I am not a fan of this plan. The verbiage from the BSD was that is will allow for better in school planning for teachers without having to bring in substitute teachers.  
 
I believe the BSD had already decided to go with this calendar before they sent out the parent survey.  
 
At this point I'm going to try and be objective and give it an honest open mind for this year but also be very aware that change will only happen with parent feedback. Too late for this year but provide your concerns to the BSD anyway.

Gonna be a pain the butt to work around. I was able to easily work around every second Friday there being no school because of PD/inservice/parent teacher. Now I have to work around randon Wednesdays and Thursdays, with I believe some Fridays (when I looked at the calendar), some half days in the morning and some in the afternoon and some all day.  
 
Thank god they have the calendar out already so I can print it off and start planning.

only thing i can suggest for these types of issues is maybe there is a teen who also has the same PD days looking for a bit of work ..otherwise yes its a pain

Anyone know how this would work for bused students? would it still be the same as it would be for after school?

Dumb question. Is there anywhere that states how long a teacher has to teach each year? I have been reading a little about this CI stuff in the schools and it isn't anything I was expecting. I see some of the reasoning is to reduce subs and stuff. Reading the teachers contract I cannot find a min/max number of teaching days needed to be done. Why couldn't they have done training days during Christmas times or during spring breaks? Is this CI team affiliated with the teachers union?

missdee83 said "Anyone know how this would work for bused students? would it still be the same as it would be for after school? "

I'd like to know how busing works as well. Especially for the days where they only go for the afternoons. Wonder what time the kids will catch a bus to go to school at for those days? And how this all affects the lunch time classes in high school. Some classes run during lunch hour, so would those classes fall in morning or afternoons? And will buses be running in time for them to take that noon class?  
This should cause some confusion in the coming school year.  
should be good and confusing for daycare situations too.  
I'm definitely not a fan of this.  
 
Edited by Cheezies, 2017-04-17 22:29:07

Work with the university to gave students in the PhysEd program organize specialty sports events for those half days.  
 
Mini U has facilities and equipment. Soccer camps do not require much equipment other than a field and players and the school has that.  
 
YMCA can expand their programs for nearby schools so students could walk to or from the other half of the school day.

Fishin Guy said "Dumb question. Is there anywhere that states how long a teacher has to teach each year? I have been reading a little about this CI stuff in the schools and it isn't anything I was expecting. I see some of the reasoning is to reduce subs and stuff. Reading the teachers contract I cannot find a min/max number of teaching days needed to be done. Why couldn't they have done training days during Christmas times or during spring breaks? Is this CI team affiliated with the teachers union? "

on the MB gov site & they don''t have a set amount of time anymore just:  
"School Year  
The number of days in the school year will vary from year to year depending upon the date of the first Tuesday following Labour Day. Up to a maximum of ten non-instructional days can be used for teacher in-service, parent-student conferences, administration and pupil evaluation. Of these ten days, five must be used for teacher in-service. The instructional time per week from kindergarten to grade 8 is approximately 1650 minutes."  
 
What I don''t understand is why we don''t just let the kids out earlier & have end of June be teacher days. It''s a lot easier on parents to fill a whole week (even 2) than to try and manage this 1/2 day nonsense. I would lay money a good number of students simply will not attend the instructional part of the 1/2 day because it is not logistically possible for parents to get them to school or daycare in the middle of the day. As such teachers won't do anything with the children that are there as too many are missing to give assignments so, they'll turn into movie days or something, making them effectively a non instructional day.  
 
Edited by Happy Trails , 2017-04-18 09:21:42

Where is the 2017/2018 BSD school calendar available? Please provide link

Just Google Brandon School Division calendar. Both thr 2016/2017 and the 2017/2018 calendars are there to download the PDFs.  
 
That's how I found it.

It's definitely going to be a major struggle for a lot of families. There was a previous thread on this topic a month or so ago. They will still be bussing the kids. My daughter rides the bus 2 hours a day. Now she will ride that long just to be at school for 3 hours! That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of.  
 
They didn't really try to get much input from families and it was almost as though their mind was made up. It's supposed to be a huge savings going this route but I am still at a loss as to where the savings is coming from.

Abracadabra said "Where is the 2017/2018 BSD school calendar available? Please provide link "

https://www.bsd.ca/Calendar/Documents/2017-2018%20School%20Day%20Calendar.pdf

2017:  
Sep 27 – full  
Oct 20 – full  
Nov 2 – afternoon  
Nov 17 – full  
Dec 7 – morning  
 
2018:  
Feb 14 – afternoon  
Mar 8 – full  
Mar 16 – full  
Apr 25 – morning  
May 30 – afternoon  
June 21 - morning

Charema said "2017:   Sep 27 – full   Oct 20 – full   Nov 2 – afternoon   Nov 17 – full   Dec 7 – morning     2018:   Feb 14 – afternoon   Mar 8 – full   Mar 16 – full   Apr 25 – morning   May 30 – afternoon   June 21 - morning "

First off, I agree, 1/2 day PD days do not make any sense. How can anything really get done? Unless it is a school wide focused event based on a divisional goal, there can be no way that this day can be productive.  
 
But in looking at these dates, not all of them are set as PD days. Some of them are called Admin Days which means several things. November 17 and March 16 are Parent Teacher interview times. The November 2 and the PD of March 8th are also Admin times.  
 
These admin could be for Report Card writing or semester changes, etc. Yes, kids are not at school but this is usually the time the division will mandate what has to happen. And again, 1/2 days in a time when majority of parents work just can not be an easy thing to make work.

Is it me or does it seem the number of actual teaching days is declining. If a teacher want to have professional development to increase his wages,do it during the summer. It seems that every week their is a day off. Any Pd day should not be taken out of teaching time.

The number of teaching days hasn't changed in decades. I am in my 40s and there were 10 pd/admin days back when I was in a kid and it's still the same now.