A bill to grant public schools more control over their academic calendars is advancing in the state Senate. The bill would allow school boards to begin their school year up to a week earlier in August than current state law allows.
Supporters say it should address school boards’ concerns that the current school calendar law is inconvenient for students because it pushes the fall semester well past students’ winter breaks.
The bill passed its first committee yesterday, after advocates for public schools and the tourism industry spoke in favor of the bill at its hearing. But the North Carolina School Boards Association is raising concerns that this bill would make it impossible for school boards to take advantage of an earlier start date unless they have fewer days of school each year and lengthen the school day.
While the bill would let schools start up to a week earlier in August, it would also require schools that choose that option to also end several weeks earlier in the summer. Under state law, public schools must provide instruction for 185 days or 1,025 hours per school year.
Bill supporters say it would let schools finish fall exams before Christmas
Senator Amy Galey (R-Alamance) sponsored the bill, which also counts Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and Senate Majority Leader Michael Lee as co-sponsors.
Galey said one motivation for the bill is that last year a quarter of school boards didn’t comply with the state’s current law.
“School boards justify this, claiming that they are unable to achieve their goals, particularly the goal of having exams for high school students before Christmas, without violating the school calendar law,” Galey told the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
Galey argued this bill would resolve that issue, while not pushing the school year too deeply into the summer tourism season. School boards have long contended that the current law is hard on students because it forces them to finish final exams and projects after a long winter break.
A pair of Rockingham County school board members spoke in favor of the bill at its hearing, saying they were able to craft a calendar that would comply with the bill.
Rockingham County school board member Kimberly McMichael said their proposed calendar is 170 days long, with 1,054 hours of instructional time. That meets the state’s required number of instructional hours per year, but it would be 15 days shorter than most school district’s current school calendars.
NC School Boards Association raises concerns that the new alternative is still too restrictive
The North Carolina School Boards Association says its members have had mixed reactions to the bill.
“Some school districts like it. Many others argue the alternative calendar proposed in this bill is not educationally sound – in part because it requires students to spend fewer days at school,” NCSBA’s Director of Governmental Relations Bruce Mildorf told WUNC.
He says, under this bill, it’s only possible for school boards to adopt an earlier start date if they have fewer days a year with longer days. Mildwurf said many school boards don’t think that’s good for students’ education.
“Adding a few minutes to the end of the school day, they argue, does not benefit students. And so a lot of them, while they are interested in making this work, and they want to make this work, the way it is drafted is very restrictive,” Mildwurf said.
Mildwurf said the bill could also pose new challenges, because if a school district adopts a calendar with fewer school days, it could reduce pay for child nutrition staff who are paid through school meal sales.
The North Carolina School Boards Association is neither opposing nor supporting the bill at this time, and Mildwurf said its members would like to see revisions to the bill that provide more flexibility.
Bill includes new enforcement measures that tourism advocates appreciate
The bill also comes with new teeth. School boards that continue to break the law could have their central office funding cut as a consequence, and the bill clarifies that any resident or business owner can sue their local school district if it defies the law – at a cost to the district plus a penalty of up to $10,000.
Last year, a group of tourism businesses sued Carteret County Schools for breaking the law. The district lost the case and was required to pay court fees and adjusted its calendar. Twenty-eight other districts faced no consequences that year.
Galey said although the issue has long been cast as a conflict between schools and the state’s tourism industry, she doesn’t think their interests are opposed.
“I think that we can have economic development and we can have academic achievement at the same time,” Galey said.
“The travel and tourism industry needs good employees,” Galey continued. “At the same time, our public schools really rely on the revenue generated by the travel and tourism industry.”
John McPherson, a representative of NC Realtors – a group that originally lobbied for the current school calendar law when it was passed in 2004 – spoke at the bill’s hearing. He said although the group’s members would rather not give up a week of tourism in August, he called it a “reasonable compromise.”
Senator Galey says she hopes this bill will put the issue to rest
The bill passed the Senate education committee Wednesday with a few nay votes from Democrats.
Senator Gladys Robinson (D-Guilford) voted against the bill. She questioned why it doesn’t give school boards total flexibility in setting their calendars, the same as charter schools – which are also public schools.
Robinson said school leaders in her district have asked whether the start date could be pushed as far as August 11th, to make it easier on families who rely on child care provided by summer camps that are staffed by college students. Even if the bill becomes law, most colleges would begin their school year before traditional K-12 schools.
Galey responded that there’s a tradeoff between college students being available to work at summer camps and high school students being able to work in the coastal tourism industry.
“They really rely on the high school students to be available in those weeks of August, to be able to work at the lifeguard stand, at the hostess stand at the restaurant, bussing tables and doing other things,” Galey said.
Senator Sophia Chitlik (D-Durham) also voted against the bill, arguing different school districts have different needs. She asked Galey whether Republican leaders in the Senate saw it as a first step to offering even more calendar flexibility in the future.
“This is not a first step,” Galey responded. “To me, it’s a resolution of the issue. I think this should take care of it. We’ve got to have stability. We’ve got to have predictability, for our students and our families and for our business owners.”
If the bill becomes law, the changes would take effect in the 2026-2027 school year. Schools could continue to adopt calendars that meet the current law, or seek an alternative calendar that meets requirements laid out in the bill.
