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Alberta school board looking to cram full school week into four days

Alberta funds private schools at higher rate than other provinces – kicking in 70 per cent of what a student would get in a public classroom.

Imagine you're a kid and you've just been told that from now on, every weekend will be a long weekend, that you'll only be going to school Monday to Thursday.

That's what students in Fort McMurray, Alberta's oil sands centre, may hear if the city's public school board votes in favour of a proposal to cut the school week to four days.

Their parents, many of whom work shifts in surrounding oil sands projects, may not be as thrilled but the board is looking for ways to save money.

Reducing the school week while maintaining the same number of instructional hours by extending the school day slightly would save on busing, support staff and maintenance while giving teachers additional professional-development days, the National Post reports.

“We looked at the budget situation and started talking about how do we try to effectively reduce our costs in order to not get to the point where we need to take drastic measures in terms of staff reduction,” said board chairman Jeff Thompson told the Post.

[ Related: Fort McMurray public school board votes on whether to adopt four-day week ]

Fort McMurray's public school system is looking at the city's separate Roman Catholic school system, which has been operating on a four-day week for almost two years and saved $600,000 so far while also providing daycare between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

According to CBC News, school superintendent Dennis Parsons said the change could save the public system up to a $1 million a year. It is currently facing a $4.4-million deficit.

But Parsons also noted parents' reaction so far has been negative because of the child-care issue. The board was scheduled to vote on the issue Tuesday but a similar proposal was two years ago was rejected, CBC News said.

But some think Fort McMurray could make it work. School sports teams regularly take Friday's office to compete in events in Edmonton, a 4 1/2-hour drive away and attendance drops by 15 per cent, the Post noted. Many employers also give workers Friday off.

“A lot of our parents are used to innovation and trying to figure out to solve problems with rapid growth,” said Kim Jenkins, superintendent of the city's Catholic school board.

Of course, Fort McMurray is not the first city to consider tweaking the school week.

Vancouver's public system saved a million dollars by implementing 10 days off a couple of years ago, cutting it to five days for the current school year. Prince Edward Island's Education Governance Commission last year recommended increasing the number of professional-development days from the current five per year, perhaps adding a half day each week or one day every two weeks.

[ Related: More school professional-development days recommended ]

The Post noted some rural schools in Alberta moved to a four-day week to save busing costs.

Some schools in Canada have gone to year-round schooling, with shorter summer breaks, and Saskatchewan is actually considering adding up to 40 hours per year to classroom time, according to the Regina Leader-Post.