Henderson County Schools looking to break law again with 2024 early start
HENDERSONVILLE - After defying North Carolina state law and starting the school year two weeks before it was legally supposed to in 2023, Henderson County Public Schools officials are looking to do the same in 2024.
At the Dec. 11 Henderson County Board of Education meeting, HCPS Chief Administrative Officer Carl Taylor presented a first draft of the 2024-25 school year, and the first day of school for students was on Aug. 12. This would again be against the state law, which states that the first day of school can be no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26, 2024.
"This calendar once again has an early start date. It was a consensus by our calendar committee and from general feedback we received from all of our schools and that consensus was of an early start date for the traditional calendar," Taylor said.
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The draft showed the Christmas holiday beginning Dec. 20, with students returning to school on Jan. 6. Spring break would be March 17-21, and the final day for students would be May 23.
HCPS Board Chair Blair Craven, who was a part of the School Calendar Committee, said the committee had a representative from all of the 23 schools in the county, and everyone approved the 2024-25 calendar's early start.
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"I asked two or three separate times about what are you going to do about starting early. There was not one person in that room that didn't want to start to early," he said. "I told them to tell me now if you don't want to start early. This was a consensus for all. Every single person agreed that they loved the calendar we have this year and they want to see it go forward."
HCPS Superintendent Mark Garrett said he had nothing but positive feedback from students, parents and the public about starting school early in 2023.
"Folks are very happy to be ending the semester heading into holiday break," he said at the Dec. 11 meeting. "We have had zero negative feedback. When I'm at ballgames, I hear nothing but good things. It seems to be a much cleaner break for everybody."
Last year the school board had a 4-3 split vote on approving the 2023-24 school year starting early. Craven, Jay Egolf, Robert Bridges and Stacey Caskey voted in favor, while Kathy Revis, Alyssa Norman and Shelia Dale voted against.
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After seeing the 2024-25 draft, Revis said the calendar did make sense, but she said she would not vote for it since it goes against state law.
"I took an oath of office that I will uphold the general statutes. We all took that oath of office. It's in our board policy. How do we go against our board policy? I cannot vote for this calendar. I'm one vote, and that's what the beauty of what our school board is," she said.
After the presentation was made, Revis asked if parents had a voice in the process.
"We presented this draft to the parent advisory committee, so that was where we got that parental impact. That same consistency about the start date is echoed in the parent advisory council." Garrett said.
The school board will vote on adopting the calendar at its next meeting on Jan. 8.
Dean Hensley is the news editor for the Hendersonville Times-News. Email him with tips, questions and comments at DHensley@gannett.com. Please help support this kind of local journalism with a subscription to the Hendersonville Times-News.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Henderson County Schools propose breaking law again with early start
