Leaders of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools are backing down from talk of defying the state's controversial school calendar law this year.
The district is currently polling the community on two options for the 2023-24 school calendar. Both of them bring students back on Aug. 28, as required by the state’s school calendar law.
Normally that would be no surprise. But when schools opened this year, Interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh told reporters the school board had instructed him to look at following the Central Piedmont Community College calendar, which starts Aug. 14, for the coming year.
Hattabaugh said he and CMS board leaders agreed it’s better for students to start in mid-August and take high school mid-year exams before winter break.
"That’s what’s best for students," he said at the time. "We’re talking about EOCs, EOGs, and kids having to come back and spend a week in review. So I think it’s the right move."
Hattabaugh noted that the decision would fall to the board. Chair Elyse Dashew, who was in the audience at the news conference, didn't contradict him. She had recently tweeted her support for the Gaston County school board's decision approving an Aug. 17 start date that defied the state law.
Charles Jeter, director of policy and government affairs for the CMS board, now says any move to synchronize with the Central Piedmont calendar would likely come no earlier than 2024.
Gaston, Cleveland and Rutherford counties opened early this year, despite a state calendar law driven largely by the tourism industry that requires a late-August opening for most districts. In September the Cabarrus County school board voted to join them in August 2023.
The current law does not specify penalties for disregarding the mandate, and many legislators of both parties have called for giving districts flexibility. By the time CMS tackles its 2024-25 calendar, lawmakers are likely to have eased the current restrictions or put teeth into them. And the district will likely have a permanent superintendent; Hattabaugh's contract runs through June 6, 2023.
