Fredericton, Oromocto schools doing away with half-days, changing staggered start times

Sam Farley · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 29, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

More changes are coming to pupil schedules successful the superior region in the fall, but this clip they whitethorn be more invited to parents.

A missive connected Friday from David McTimoney, superintendent of  Anglophone West School District, said that Fredericton simple students volition nary longer person half-day Wednesdays, and those successful Oromocto volition nary longer person half-day Fridays, opening successful September. 

Changes crossed the state to adjacent retired the fig classroom hours for students proved particularly difficult in Fredericton and Oromocto where they tried to support the fractional days, the missive from McTimoney said. 

These adjustments represent a instrumentality to a much mean docket aft galore parents complained astir staggered accomplishment and dismissal times this year, particularly a occupation for parents with children dispersed crossed antithetic grades who faced antithetic schedules. 

In November, pursuing galore complaints, the territory hired a advisor to stitchery feedback from families astir the changes, and much than 4,000 survey responses were gathered.

"After examining each of those scenarios, we knew that we needed to marque a alteration to the mode it is this year," said McTimoney successful an interview. 

He added that the territory had worked hard to find "the saccharine spot" erstwhile it comes to balancing schoolroom hours and a analyzable busing system that serves much than 18,000 students and travels much than 34,000 kilometres a day. 

All schools successful the territory volition present commencement betwixt 8:00 a.m. and 8:35 a.m., and disregard betwixt 2:05 p.m. and 3:35 p.m. This besides addresses a caller update to the district's declaration with teachers that calls for regular instructional minutes, which was thrown disconnected by having half-days, the missive said.

"It allows for immoderate consistency crossed astir of Anglophone West, it allows for immoderate consistency close crossed the state arsenic well," McTimoney said. 

In the coming months, the territory volition conscionable with schools to nail down much precise autobus times for the coming year, helium said. 

"We judge that those times volition beryllium tenable and we're trying to minimize the magnitude of clip that it would instrumentality and for students to beryllium waiting aft school."

Parent thankful for changes

The determination is already comforting parents who had recovered the staggered and aboriginal commencement times a challenge.

Lily Smallwood, who has 5 children successful elementary, mediate and precocious schools in Fredericton, said it was bully to spot the territory listening to feedback from parents.

"I recovered that encouraging," she said. 

"It felt similar the changes past twelvemonth had travel retired of obscurity and we were each blindsided by it and they hadn't thought done however it would impact families."

The alteration adjacent twelvemonth volition person affirmative impacts for the family, which presently sees the kids instrumentality the autobus astatine precise antithetic times. Her elementary-age child takes the autobus astir 7:35 a.m., but the mediate schoolers aren't be picked up until an hr later. 

In the afternoon, her youngest arrives location by 2:45 but her oldest isn't backmost until past 6:00.

"We're going to get suppertime back. That's a large happening for us," Smallwood said, that her ol due to the fact that her oldest son, who is successful precocious school, often gets location overmuch aboriginal than his siblings.

"We precise often conscionable person to prevention him a plate. And truthful we've mislaid that truly ineffable household clip astir the array and we're going to beryllium capable to get that back."

It volition besides marque a quality for her mediate schoolhouse children, whose schoolhouse starts are overmuch aboriginal this year. 

"They get up successful the greeting to get acceptable for schoolhouse and they're conscionable benignant of waiting astir the house, you know, wanting to ticker TV, wanting to bent retired connected their phones," she said. 

"And truthful it makes much consciousness to get them backmost astatine that aboriginal greeting hours that they've been utilized to their full lives."

The full acquisition was a "learning acquisition for the district," Smallwood said, adding that she feels relieved for her family. 

"I'm truly impressed with the information that they took the effort to perceive for feedback, particularly from teachers," she said. 

"Let's bash our homework first. Let's speech to families first and spot however it's going to impact them earlier we marque immense changes that impact people's lives."