Louis Riel School Division plans to end late-start Wednesdays next school year

Louis Riel School Division is ending a pilot project that saw one day of the school week start at a later time for students. Joseph Bernacki explains.

Over the lunch hour at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate, students are counting down the days until school’s out for summer. Some, however, are already thinking about next year’s schedule.

“I think they should keep it in—they shouldn’t get rid of it,” said Andrew Vila, a Grade 9 student at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate.

Vila said it is disappointing to learn that his school and others in the Louis Riel School Division will no longer have late-start Wednesdays beginning next school year.

Since 2015, Wednesday mornings have offered high school students in the division a bit of extra time—with classes starting at 9:45 a.m. instead of 8:30 a.m.

The later start gave students flexibility, a chance to catch up on work or sleep in.

It’s a cool idea because it gives kids the chance to start later, get more sleep so you can be more energized for school and if they have appointments in the morning, they can get to that quicker," said Joseph Mulligan, a Grade 11 student at Nelson McIntyre Collegiate.

“It gives me an extra two hours to sleep in, so I like it mostly because of that, but it also makes it a shorter day too,” said Nolan Suthern, a Grade 10 student at Dakota Collegiate. “We’re all pretty bummed about it getting removed.”

In a statement, assistant superintendent Mia Guenther told CTV News said a new collective agreement ratified last month between the division and its teachers’ union—CUPE 3473—prompted the change.

Guenther said the new schedule creates consistency.

“The updated high school timetable reflects these changes, including revised class lengths and a consistent daily schedule to support both student learning time and staff planning requirements,” Guenther said.

Jo Ann Unger, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Manitoba who works with students and families, said that until more data is collected, sleep consistency remains key.

“We actually don’t encourage to have different wake up times and that is, more helpful to have the same time every morning that you’re waking up to have a good healthy sleep pattern,” Unger said.