Despite school districts now being able to set their own school calendars, it's going to be business as usual as far as Surrey schools are concerned.

Having been passed as part of Bill 36 earlier this year, the school calendar regulations were revealed late last week by the Ministry of Education.

According to the ministry, come the 20132014 school year, school boards will be able to determine the number and dates of days in session, the number of dates of each day of instruction, the dates of vacation periods and the dates of each non-instructional day.

While school boards now have their own say, Surrey Board of Education Chair Laurae McNally said don't expect anything in Surrey to change soon.

"At the moment we have no plans to do so," said McNally of altering the calendar year from its current form. "Two or three years ago we consulted the community quite widely as to what they thought about year-long schooling and some said they knew students didn't retain as much with the summer recess and maybe it would be a good idea, others said it would disrupt family life and others said if you're going to do it, you have to do it as an entire Metro region because it would interfere with athletic events and that."

In the end, McNally said the decision to look at a different education schedule for Surrey was shelved.

However, McNally noted that students looking for year-round schooling still have those options available to them as it currently stands.

"We have summer sessions anyway in our district because we have over 10,000 students each year who choose to go to summer school, so it's not an issue here at the moment," she said.

Now staff

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