More days off for students, more headaches for working parents under new school calendar
Parents who juggle their schedules to find child care during non-instructional days say an Edmonton public school board decision to give students five more days off will add logistical and financial headaches for them and other working parents.
"I'll have to pay for additional days of out-of-school care. If I don't take the day off work, I'll have to take my child to an out-of-school care and pay for that," said Fraser Porter, whose son attends kindergarten at Oliver School.
Trustees voted Tuesday to add five more non-instructional days to next year's school calendar as a cost-saving measure. Board chair Trisha Estabrooks said most parents are well aware the board is in a financial crunch.
"We need to direct as many dollars as possible to the classroom right now," Estabrooks said in an interview. "We're taking that seriously and the decision we made [Tuesday] helps to support that idea."
The school board expects the move to save almost $3 million, with some of that coming from not running yellow buses for those five days.
As well, two of the days will be designated as professional development days for teachers.
"The hope is that staff will use those allotted days to take their professional development, thereby eliminating or significantly reducing the cost we'd spend on substitute teachers," Estabrooks said.
'It will cost me more money'
The school board's decision Tuesday came two days before the provincial government will table its 2020-21 budget.
Porter said that as a parent, she'd prefer to see a cut to the number of school days than a cut to classroom staff — but she would have rather not have seen any cost-cutting measures.
"'I'll take the less school days, but it will cost me more money," she said. "And I would have liked to have seen no reduction in education dollars."
With high unemployment in Edmonton, parents are put in an awkward position to ask their employers for either additional time off or more flexibility in their hours, she said.
"Asking your employer for more grace is not always the easiest thing to do. And having to re-arrange those pick-up schedules in a difficult labour environment can be very touchy."
She noted child care centres are also dealing with a recent cut to the benefit contribution grant, which the UCP government has said will be discontinued as of April 1. Child-care providers are not in a good position to absorb those extra days, she said.
Some parents say the extra days off will undoubtedly cause headaches for parents — but could benefit students.
"For the kids it's probably a good thing. But for parents, adding more holidays to the list may cause confusion with childcare," said Crystal Tremblay, who has two children at Delton School.
