Trustees of School District 53 made a tough decision Wednesday and turned down a plan designed by teachers to take summer Pro D days and insert them into school instructional time.

Pro D Days (training for teachers) now happens in August before the school year.

Polling of parents indicated that they thought The Inquiry-time Model (Tim Time) and adjusting the school year was too much change for students…… and school trustees agreed.

Trustee Myrna Coates said –  “there was not enough input on this possible change”. Assistant Superintendent Jim Insley said “the proposal was from the teachers who suggested that Pro D Days within the school year would more productive”.

BCTF rep Sylvia Slater said she was disappointed and frustrated but determined to facilitate this change in the future.

Trustee Debbie Marten stated that in her opinion it was too much change all at once. Trustee Tamela Edwards says there was pushback from parents as there is more cost for daycare if two instructional days are lost. Trustees expressed concern about the effect on students of less instructional time.

Administrators of District schools were also not in favour saying the loss to students was too much.

One comment was that parents need to be educated about the benefits of teacher training and the idea might be brought back sometime in the future.

A special forum on The Inquiry-time Model will be held April 15th at Osoyoos Secondary School.