The Vancouver School Board could launch a year-round school pilot project at several city schools as early as 2012/13, according to superintendent Steve Cardwell.
Last year, trustees asked the district’s calendar committee to examine if educational advantages exist in having what’s known as a balanced calendar, which involves lengthening the school year, shortening the summer break and adding longer breaks between sessions.
Several schools in B.C.—including Richmond’s Spul’u’kwuks elementary, Maple Ridge’s Kanaka Creek elementary, Langley’s Douglas Park community school, and Glendale elementary in Williams Lake—offer year-round schools.
“We have not worked out what schools [would be involved] at this point, but we’ve been talking about the balanced school calendar—year-round schools—for a year or so now and believe that the old agricultural, industrial-based calendar that currently exists with long summers may not necessarily be the right thing for everyone,” Cardwell told the Courier. “We want to give another choice to parents and students. We are aware Maple Ridge and Richmond have schools with a balanced-year calendar and they have long lineups or waiting lists to get in and we think we should be looking at the same concept.”