PRINCE ALBERT — The Prince Albert Catholic Division Board of Education approved the 2025-26 school year calendar at their regular meeting Monday.
The calendar is tentative until the Ministry of Education gives final approval.
“Basically, the board approves a calendar now that's going to be submitted to the Ministry of Education for a final approval. It's important that we designate certain aspects in the calendar. Obviously, there's legislation that we need to comply with like we must start school after Labour Day,” education director Lorel Trumier said.
"We construct a calendar, we work through some processes. Last night (Monday) the board had what we feel is the calendar that best suits the needs of our school division,” Trumier added.
In the draft, the school will begin on Tuesday, Sept. 2 next school year because of where Labour Day has landed this calendar year, with teachers having assigned teacher time on Aug. 25, 26, 27, 28 and 29. The Teacher’s Convention is scheduled for March 13. High School conferences are on Nov. 18 and April 29.
“Legislation requires us to start the school year after Labour Day. There are a few years where there would be an exception, but the minister is the only one who can approve the exception and it really is around ensuring that there's enough instructional hours,” Trumier said.
She added that when there is a late Labour Day, where it lands on a date like Sept 7 it would be tight to get all of the hours in the school year.
"That's why sometimes it's before Labour Day, but the legislation always dictates that it would be after,” she said.
The High School Conferences were originally scheduled for Nov. 19 but the division moved them back a day because of the high school drama production on that date.
“We just needed to shift that over one day. It came to our attention late,” Trumier said.
Also, elementary conferences were bumped up two weeks into January and had to be shifted to their normal slots in February.
"It doesn't change the days the kids are in school,” she said. “They're all in school in those days. It would be just what's happening in the schools in the evenings, especially because parent-teacher interviews are in the evening.”
Christmas break will be from Monday, Dec. 22 until Jan. 2.
The February break is from Feb.16 to 20, 2026 and there is an Easter break from April 3 until April 10, 2026, with Good Friday on April 3. The last day of classes will be on June 25 2026. The calendar is expected to be approved by the province by May at the latest.
The calendar includes 315 minutes of instruction per day and 950 hours of instruction per school year as directed in the Education Act.
School will begin after Labour Day next school year, with Labour Day landing on Sept. 2.
According to the Education Act, any year when the statutory holiday occurs on Sept. 5 or later, the education minister can choose to start school during the previous week before the holiday.
The legislation to start school after Labour Day was introduced in 2011.
