Alternate School Year Calendar Meeting

Principal’s Message—Alternate School Year Calendar

Tuesday, November 8 at 7:00 at Riverview

The Riverview Collegiate School Community Council has decided to begin the process of applying to the Prairie South School Division Board of Trustees to move to the Alternate School Year Calendar. The Alternate School Year Calendar (ASYC) is currently used by several rural schools in PSSD and by other schools in Saskatchewan. The ASYC has 24 minutes added to each school day which then provides for the opportunity for 14 Fridays with no school throughout the school year. The overall instructional minutes remain the same as mandated by the Ministry of Education. In order for Riverview to add the additional 24 minutes to the school day the lunch hour would be adjusted, as well as the transition time between classes. This will allow the start and end times of the day to remain the same.

The primary reasons for moving to the ASYC are to:

• Increased student attendance by providing time for appointments and other obligations without missing school
• Provide time for students to fulfill Career Work and Youth Apprenticeship hours
• Allows earlier start times for extra-curricular sports/tournaments on Fridays without missing instructional time
• Provide time for students who work, to schedule work hours

An important consideration when the SCC was considering the move to the ASYC was to have something that sets Riverview apart from the other high schools in the city. It is the hope of the SCC and the school staff that the ASYC would appeal to more students and that would lead to an increase in the student population.

On November 8 there will be an informational meeting for the parents of Riverview students and the community of South Hill. During this meeting there will be further details of the benefits of the ASYC provided by Division Staff as well as a principal and a parent from a school that currently operates on the ASYC. There will be time for questions and clarifications and the parents of current Riverview students will be asked to vote whether or not they would like to see Riverview move to the ASYC.

It is very important that we have significant turnout from the parents of our students. It would be good if we had a representative from each family at the informational night so that each household could cast an informed vote. If you would like more information regarding the ASYC and would like to share your opinion come out to the information night. Voting will take place at this meeting.

To see a copy of the 2016-17 ASY Calendar you can go to the Prairie South Website (prairiesouth.ca). The calendar is under the Division tab, Calendars, Alternate School Year Calendar.