Variances - Surrey Teachers Association

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 in order to accommodate such courses. Most of the approved variances are for fine arts classes.

Staff Reps at Secondary Schools have received information and application forms have been forwarded to the Fine Arts Department Head. The following criteria apply:

The course(s) could not be offered during the instructional day, (not during lunch break)
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)

Variance Application form need to be completed, and returned to the STA office. Please contact grieve1@surreyteachers.org if you need further information.

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