School board considers, keeps early start calendar

DANBURY — The Stokes County Schools Board of Education will keep the district with an early start date as planned for the upcoming school year, though a judge's order in an eastern North Carolina county has raised some uncertainty about the ability to do so.

In January, the Board approved a calendar with an Aug. 14 start date for the 2024-2025 school year, which is earlier than the Aug. 26 date that North Carolina statute and the Department of Public Instruction says is the earliest school can start.

The decision to start early was based on student success: the early start date allows for end of semester exams to take place before Christmas break and aligns with community college calendars. A survey showed that parents and staff heavily preferred the early start date.

It was also understood that other districts who had previously utilized the early start calendar had not been penalized for going against the statute.

Stokes County Schools' Attorney Fredrick Johnson provided some insight to how that might be changing at the June 17 board meeting.

Stokes County is among 29 districts in the state with an early-start calendar in violation of the statute, according to a June 15 Department of Public Instruction report.

One of those districts, Carteret County Public Schools, was sued earlier this year by a group of residents who, according to a WUNC report, believed the early start would hurt tourism dependent businesses.

A Superior Court judge issued an order June 5 invalidating that early start calendar.

"Basically the judge has ordered Carteret County to start school no earlier than August 26," Johnson said.

The Carteret County Public Schools Board of Education voted to appeal the judge's decision but at this point will have to change the calendar to start later unless that judge or the appellate court stays the order.

While that decision only applies to Carteret County, Johnson noted that an appellate court decision could have a statewide impact.

He said that in addition to the argument that the statute requiring an Aug. 26 start or later is not best for students, Carteret County district will argue that the statute itself is unconstitutional since it applies only to traditional public schools and not all publicly funded schools such as charter schools.

Johnson indicated that other districts in violation of the statue may be vulnerable to individual lawsuits.

A potential shift in the legislative attitude toward enforcing the statute was also discussed at the June 17 meeting.

Stokes County Schools recently received a letter from the North Carolina State Board of Education notifying them that the Stokes County Schools calendar was in violation of the state statute and reminding the school board of their constitutional duty to comply with the statute.

"...Therefore telling us not to start before August 26th," Johnson said during the meeting.

"The same letter that we received was received by our neighbors in Surry County, Yadkin County, Elkin City, Mount Airy City," Johnson said, adding that he did not believe the other district's boards had met yet and he did not know the other districts' plans.

Johnson confirmed during the meeting that school districts that have violated the start date statute in the past have received that letter and to his knowledge no further action was taken by the State Board of Education, the legislature or the attorney general.

However, Johnson noted that may be changing.

"...the Senate, as I understand it, is in favor of enforcing this with whatever legislation may be required, and also instructing the Attorney General of North Carolina to enforce the statute," Johnson said.

"The only difference now is that we do have this court decision from Carteret," he told the Board. "I can't state this as a fact, but in the seminars that I have attended where representatives of the State Board have made presentations on the calendar, what I am hearing now is 'yes, we do plan to enforce this now.' How they will enforce that, I don't know."

Johnson recommended that the Stokes County school board be prepared with an alternative calendar that meets the statutory requirements and be prepared to utilize that calendar at potentially short notice.

The Board reached consensus to stay the course with the currently approved early start calendar. The calendar committee had prepared a late-start calendar as an option in January; that calendar will be utilized if necessary.