Proposed education calendar changes spark debate about 4-day school week

Aidan Cox · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 14, 2025 4:57 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 minutes ago

A now-scuttled connection to present a four-day schoolhouse week successful New Brunswick's anglophone schools has sparked statement astir the imaginable benefits and challenges for parents and students.

The Department of Education says it formed a committee aimed astatine exploring changes to the schoolhouse calendar that would provide teachers with much clip for nonrecreational development.

The committee considered implementing a four-day docket arsenic a mode to execute that, but past decided to driblet the thought aft consulting the province's anglophone schoolhouse districts' superintendents, said section spokesperson Diana Chávez.

"They decided not to determination guardant with that enactment and volition alternatively beryllium exploring much viable options that volition beryllium brought guardant by the committee aboriginal this month."

A four-day schoolhouse week isn't going ahead, but the connection has already made its mode down to members of some parent schoolhouse enactment committees, wherever it received enactment from astatine slightest 1 chairperson.

"I deliberation that it's good," said Melody Katz-Nardon, who chairs the genitor schoolhouse enactment committee for Prince Charles School successful Saint John.

"I deliberation it boosts adjacent attendance due to the fact that kids person that other time to beryllium location and remainder if they're not feeling well. [They're] less apt to get sick due to the fact that they're little tired."

Katz-Nardon said the four-day week would besides springiness teachers 1 time each week to prosecute nonrecreational development, oregon conscionable drawback up grading assignments and filling retired study cards.

"And it won't beryllium disruptive to parents' schedules due to the fact that ... they'll cognize that each Friday they person to person their kids successful daycare oregon person alternate care."

Katz-Nardon said she hopes the section reconsiders its determination to driblet the proposal.

Schedule would beryllium challenging, says parent

The thought of a four-day schoolhouse week raises concerns for Jodi Munn, a Grand Bay-Westfield genitor of 3 who works 5 days a week.

Munn said her eldest kid precocious became aged capable to babysit her 2 younger children and would beryllium capable to supervise them after school.

But she inactive worries 1 little time of structured people clip a week could pb to much surface clip for her children and enactment an unfair load connected her eldest child.

She's besides acrophobic astir different parents who'd beryllium forced to wage for child attraction for 1 afloat time each week.

"There's not capable child-care providers, not capable daycares. Parents that enactment Monday to Friday would beryllium scrambling," she said.

Alternate proposal

CBC News made repeated requests connected Thursday and Friday for an interrogation with Education Minister Claire Johnson astir the proposal, but wasn't granted one.

The projected four-day schoolhouse week was 1 of 2 options the section had floated for a aviator task that would statesman adjacent fall, said Roger Nesbitt, seat of the Anglophone School District South acquisition council.

Nesbitt said an employee from his schoolhouse territory notified him the section was readying to enlist 10 to 12 schools crossed the state to instrumentality portion successful the pilot, with superintendents having last accidental connected which schools were chosen.

Aside from the four-day week proposal, different enactment from the department progressive keeping students location for two days each period successful bid to carve retired nonrecreational improvement days for teachers.

The Department of Education did not corroborate whether that enactment is inactive being considered.

CBC News asked each 4 of the province's anglophone schoolhouse districts for interviews with their superintendents, and they each declined.

'No authoritative stance' from teachers association

The advocacy enactment for New Brunswick teachers didn't provide an interview when asked astir the four-day week proposal.

In an emailed statement, New Brunswick Teachers' Association president Peter Lagacy said the association is successful discussions with the section implicit ways to springiness teachers clip to implicit non-instructional tasks that their existent enactment schedules bash not accommodate.

"Unlike a procreation ago, today's teachers indispensable simultaneously thatch portion answering emails, tracking appraisal and behavioral data, submitting reports and specialized plans, starring problem-solving meetings with different acquisition professionals, and more," Legacy said.

Lagacy said immoderate jurisdictions person considered adopting "a flexible schoolhouse calendar" to code the issues helium cited, but didn't connection specifics.

"While these discussions stay exploratory, we person nary authoritative stance but are anxious to research viable solutions with strategy leaders, parents, students, and partners."