Every year, school districts across North Carolina ask the General Assembly to relax or eliminate its school calendar law, which forces most districts to wait until the end of August to start classes. This year is no exception.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board members say they’d love to be able to start earlier in August and give first-semester exams in December, so students could start the second semester fresh after the holidays. But a board committee is also exploring alternatives, just in case the Senate once again blocks any change in the law.
“There are three options that exist today, without requiring new legislation, that could accomplish those goals,” Charles Jeter, the CMS government relations director, told the board’s Intergovernmental Relationships Committee on Friday.
They are:
- Switch to year-round school, similar to what Wake County Public Schools does with many of its schools. Year-round schools are exempt from the requirement to wait until late August to open.
- Extend the instructional day from 6 hours to 6.5 hours and hope the extra time would allow CMS to squeeze a full semester’s work into the time between late August and late December.
- Extend the school day even more and have students attend only four days a week, allowing CMS to put significantly more instructional time into the period before a December break.
Any of those changes would require major changes for families and employees. Summer Nunn, who chairs the board’s committee, said any such changes are a long way from reality. The next step would be a deeper dive at an upcoming committee meeting, which hasn’t been scheduled.
“It seems there’s interest to look into it a bit further,” she said Monday. “Obviously we’re not doing anything next year. That calendar is already approved.”
The board has approved calendars for 2024-25 and 2025-26. Both end the first semester in late January, about two and a half weeks after students return from their holiday break.
Four-day school weeks remain uncommon, but Education Week reported in January that it’s a growing alternative for districts trying to cut costs and/or recruit teachers. It cited several surveys showing the option is popular with teachers and parents.
North Carolina’s school calendar law, approved 20 years ago, has long been unpopular with local school boards that want the power to set their own schedules. Many say they want to coordinate with community colleges, which traditionally start earlier in August and offer tuition-free classes to high-school students.
Lawmakers of both parties say they support calendar flexibility, and the House traditionally approves flexibility bills. But the Senate has blocked them. Opposition to earlier starts has come from the tourism industry, which wants a uniform statewide summer vacation and travel season.
In response, a growing number of districts have opted to simply ignore the law and start earlier in August, with a first semester ending in December. The state currently imposes no penalty for opening earlier than the legal date. But when Union County Public Schools approved an illegal early-start calendar for 2023-24, two parents sued, forcing the district to back down. One of the parents ran a summer riding camp and said the early start would hurt her business; she was represented by a lawyer whose firm represents the tourism industry — and who has said other districts could be sued if they opt to open early.
This year 15 districts, including several in the Charlotte region, defied the law. Officials in Gaston County, which was one of the first to approve an illegal calendar, say the early start reflects the will of constituents.
CMS has never attempted to do so. The state has not presented its tally of scofflaws for 2024-25.
