Alternate school calendar exploration process happening this fall in Chinook School Division

Posted on 14 September 2026 by Ryan Dahlman

By Matthew Liebenberg

mliebenberg@prairiepost.com

The Chinook School Division will provide opportunities this fall to rural school communities to explore the option of an alternate school calendar.

Chinook Director of Education Angela Hermanson provided an update about the process during a Chinook Board of Education regular meeting, Aug. 24.

“Over the past few years, we’ve had a number of communities enquiring about the option of looking at an alternate school week, because they’re aware of divisions nearby pursuing that,” she said. “This past spring, we opened up the opportunity for our rural communities that were interested in learning more about it to invite us out for a presentation.”

Presentations were made to 14 rural school community councils (SCCs). The intention of these presentations was to provide information in a neutral manner about what Chinook School Division has learned about the experiences of other school divisions that have implemented an alternate school week calendar.

“The meetings were really informative,” she noted. “We learned a lot just by presenting to the communities. … And then, at that time, they had the opportunity to take any of the information we shared and share it with their larger community.”

The next phase of the process for rural school communities takes place this fall ahead of a deadline in November.

“Those community SCCs that we presented to can now invite us to come and do a community presentation to the community as a whole,” she said. “We would give a similar presentation. We’ve got frequently asked questions from our presentations in the spring, and then we would give community members an opportunity to comment or ask any further questions they might have.”

Hermanson emphasized that the decision to implement an alternate school calendar is up to the community.

“If they wish to proceed with that and they have majority community support, it’s definitely something the board would consider for them, but it’s not something that we are pushing in the community,” she said. “It needs to be a community decision based on what they feel will work best for their community in their school.”

If there is interest in an alternate school calendar after these community presentations, the SCCs in those school communities will conduct a formal, independent community vote using a standardized, secure survey.

To allow sufficient time to implement an alternate school calendar for the 2027-2028 school year, there is a deadline of Nov. 15, 2026 for the completion of the community consultation and voting process, and the submission of survey results.

The Chinook Board of Education will review the results to verify if the community has met the division’s required threshold of support.

“We’ve talked to other school divisions that have done the vote and they’ve had varying percentages, but it’s been significantly more than just a majority vote,” she said. “If you’ve got 51 per cent of your community wanting to go that direction, I don’t think that’s a fair indication of the community needs. We would be looking for significant community support to move toward the alternate calendar.”

The final calendar approvals will be completed in the spring of 2027 after the required review by the Ministry of Education.

The use of an alternate calendar in a school will mean that there will be only four days of instruction during some weeks. For example, the alternate school calendar used by the Prairie South School Division does not have instruction on 14 Fridays during the school year.

Prairie South School Division has been using an alternate school calendar for over 30 years and the Chinook School Division had valuable discussions with them about their experience. It is the reason the Chinook School Division’s process is only focusing on rural school communities for the moment.

“That’s how Prairie South started,” Hermanson noted. “They first implemented it throughout rural communities and after 30 years they’re just now doing their first urban alternate school year.”

Rural school communities in Chinook School Division that decide to implement an alternate school calendar will have an opportunity to review their decision after two years.

“In our talks with Prairie South, they felt two years was the right window to have a consultation with the community and give them the opportunity to continue with an alternate calendar or revert to a traditional calendar,” she said. “What they did share is that none of their communities have gone back. When they get that opportunity to review it after two years, no one has chosen to go back to a traditional calendar.”