Two weeks on the picket line means students are two weeks behind where they should be, and everybody is wondering, how will they make up for the lost time?
John McLeod, public school board director of education, said the task won’t be difficult at the elementary level where the10 days of lost class time can be absorbed over the school year.
But a different scenario exists for the district’s high school students, who are more than half-way through their first semester.
Fort Frances High School principal Terry Ellwood said yesterday it would be “virtually impossible” to absorb those lost school days in such a time.
“Our curriculum is so compact right now, it’s very difficult to make up for one day lost, let alone 10 days,” Ellwood admitted yesterday.
“At this point in time, we’re trying to minimize time lost from teaching,” he added, noting some item–like Friday’s professional development day–has been canceled.
Some changes in extra-curricular activities will carry over into the second semester, such as the high school’s revue, originally slated for Friday, which has been bumped back into the new year.
Mid-term report cards also have been pushed back, Ellwood said, and will not be released until Nov. 27.
The academic schedule is the next item to be tackled but the high school is waiting to see if the government will allot any “lost time” allowance.
“If there is any lost time [allowance], the time will be split into both semesters,” Ellwood said.
As of yesterday, McLeod had received no direction from the Ministry of Education and Training on the subject, though he hoped to have the news before the week was out.
Meanwhile, rumours that the March break will be eliminated has run rampant in the high school since students and teachers returned to class Monday.
But Ellwood stressed that was just a rumour, noting student vacation time may not even be touched at all in the rescheduling process.
“There are a lot of options to build some of the lost time into the year,” he assured. “I’m sure if we considered vacation time at all, it would be a last resort.”