Since 2004, North Carolina classrooms are required to be vacant between early June and late August. That's because the General Assembly passed a law dictating when school could begin and end. But the change has never sat well with many school administrators.
"The district needs the flexibility of scheduling its own calendar," says Joyce Keith of the Pender County School Board.
She has helped determine Pender County's school calendar for the past several years. She says the current state-wide law has several problems. For one, their schedule now conflicts with community college and university calendars.
"It particularly affects our high school students. When we're trying to encourage them to enroll in advanced-level courses," says Keith.
Right now, the law says classes can't begin before August 25th or end later than June 10th.
The push for a set-calendar was largely the work of a parent-group called 'Save Our Summers.' They want to make sure local school administrators don't cut summers short by starting school any earlier.
Now, state lawmakers are challenging the 2004 law. A bill being discussed by the House Education Committee would allow some districts to once again set their own
school calendars. Those in favor of the bill may have a tough time rallying support for an issue that was essentially laid to rest just a few years ago.
Former student
As a former student, this law went into effect my senior year. I also took classes at Cape Fear Community College. I had absolutely no problem with scheduling, in fact it helped me ease back into the school year. This law has been in effect so little time there is absolutely no way to tell if it has had an affect on the tourism industry or on academics. However, I can say one thing. It had absolutely no affect on my school grades, including senior project which was completed in November and not presented in January. The problem does not fall within the school start date, but how well teachers teach the information to begin with, and all the other pointless days that local school systems schedule in due to OTHER calendar requirements that make scheduling hectic. I also enjoyed my extended summer to help me earn a few extra bucks, and spend it having fun at the beach and taking trips with friends. People need to get over this calendar law and accept it. It does not hurt students, yet it helps the economy. Another major problem comes from block scheduling that forces finals around (before and after) christmas break. Block scheduling is terrible and should be banned altogether.
Every school is required to
Every school is required to have a minimum of 180 school days. The law made a change as to when the schools could begin and end. It had nothing to do with the number of days children were in session. Traditionally, schools ended their first semester right before the winter holiday vacation. This helped students with retaining their information for finals at the high school level, as well as end of quarter testing in other grades. The law simply pushed back when school starts and ends. Instead of ending in May, they end in June. Instead of starting at the beginning of August, they start at the end.
As a parent, I feel
As a parent, I feel education is more important than tourism.
Having a shorter summer vacation could help some students retain more information and not have to review so much every year.
Perhaps schools could allow students with higher grades to have a longer vacation as an incentive, and allow students who need extra help to have a longer school year if their parents want them to have extra help and can not afford private tutoring.
This might even improve our test scores.
School Calender
When I went to school, we went for a total of 189 days with only the days off for Federal Holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas - New Years, and Easter. We did not get teacher work days which was not heard of then. The teachers did alot of the work during study halls and at the end of the day when a student had to stay after school to make up tests that was missed, while out sick. They also did some of the grading of papers at home for several hours. The kids still got the education, if they didn't they had to go to summer school for six to eight weeks to make up the subject that they failed, in-order to graduate at the end of the 12th grade.
I agree. Children need
I agree. Children need persistant learning. Year round schools get a good bit of time off as it is. After summer is over they have to get back into the learning mode.