The Kamloops-Thompson School District will be implementing a two-week long spring break starting this fall.

The move, which was agreed to by the school district, the Kamloops Thompson Teachers’ Association (KTTA), and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3500, brings SD73 in line with the majority of school districts that have two-week long spring breaks.

KTTA members voted 96 per cent in favour of a longer break, while CUPE members voted 95 per cent in favour of the change.

“The Board is pleased to have successfully negotiated a two-week spring break within the KTTA collective agreement,” SD73 Board Chair Rhonda Kershaw said. “As demonstrated by the almost unanimous vote by district union groups, this will be a welcome change for staff.”

“Teachers are looking forward to a work year that more aligns with the rest of the province,” added Laurel Macpherson, the President of the KTTA. “With the additional week in  the spring, teachers and students will be able to rejuvenate and come back re-charged for the remainder of the school year.”

CUPE Local 3500 President Corey Grabner also said the extended spring break is a welcome addition for the hundreds of support staff employed by SD73.

“We were committed to ensuring that the extra week did not come at the expense of our CUPE employees,” Grabner said.

While the province gives school districts the ability to determine their own calendars, they need to ensure that students get a minimum number of instructional hours each school year. SD73 says it will make each instructional day a little bit longer in the 2021-2022 school year to meet those requirements.

“The additional instructional time will come at the end of the school day, and not through a shortened lunch break,” SD73 said, in a statement.

SD73 says the provisional school calendar calendars for the next three years will be posted online for 30 days, so people can have their say before it is forwarded to the Minister of Education for approval.

Proposed Spring Break dates over the next three school years are:

March 21- April 1, 2022, for 2021–2022;

March 20 – March 31, 2023, for 2022-2023;

March 18 – April 2, 2024, for 2023-2024.