MONROE, N.C. (AP) — One in all North Carolina’s largest school systems has backed off an instructional calendar for next 12 months that may have openly defied a state law that directs when classes can start and end.
The Union County Board of Education voted 6-3 to rescind a 2023-24 school calendar that may have brought back students on Aug. 9, news outlets reported. That calendar had been approved unanimously last month.
But the varsity calendar law tells districts that in nearly all cases students can’t return every year until later in August. Some parents had sued the board and its members earlier this month, saying the district was breaking the law when it adopted the sooner calendar.
Board members expressed frustration at Friday’s meeting concerning the law, which has been on the books in some form for close to twenty years.
The mandated calendar parameters were designed partially to make sure vacation-related industries would have enough employees throughout the summer. But critics say the necessities make it not possible to finish the autumn semester before winter break and make it harder on dual-enrollment students — those that also take classes at community colleges.
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The General Assembly would need to approve any changes to the law.
“It’s truly heartbreaking,” board member Joe Morreale said. “I might encourage everyone who’s listening to please reach out to your state representatives and push for flexibility at school calendars.”
The brand new calendar for the Union County schools, ranked sixth within the state by enrollment, says classes will begin on Aug. 28 and end June 7, 2024.
Mitch Armbruster, a Raleigh attorney representing plaintiffs within the lawsuit against the board, said he was pleased by the board’s vote.
“I hope that every one districts with a calendar that’s inconsistent with the law will do the identical,” Armbruster told The Charlotte Observer.
School districts in Gaston, Cleveland and Rutherford counties began earlier this school 12 months, while the Cabarrus County School Board has unanimously approved an early begin to the subsequent school 12 months, the newspaper reported.
When the Union County board adopted its original calendar for next 12 months, schools Superintendent Andrew Houlihan said many parents and educators supported an early start. But other parents were critical of how the board went about approving that calendar.
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