Article D.22.1 of the collective agreement limits the length of a school’s instructional day. Some courses involve multi-grade classes that do not fit neatly within a timetable designed to comply with the collective agreement. For years, the Association has approved a limited number of “variances” to the instructional day to accommodate such courses.  

The process of looking at possible variances to the school day for the 2023 – 2024 secondary classes has begun. Please complete the variance application form and return to the STA office by November 15, 2022

Most of the approved variances are for fine arts classes. The following criteria apply: 

  • The course(s) could not be offered during the instructional day, 
  • The course(s) is a provincially or locally developed course where students are enrolled. i.e. cannot be a “drop in” or tutorial session, 
  • The course(s) is multi-grade AND it is educationally sound/appropriate to run it as a multi-grade 

course, and 

  • If not multi-grade, the course(s) may be a fine arts foundational course (such as Jazz 8) 


Please contact Amrit Sanghe at grieve1@surreyteachers.org if you need further information 

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