NC public schools follow school start law. Why not charter, private ones?

Students at Lake Norman Charter School returned to the classroom Aug. 10 — more than two weeks earlier than when traditional public schools are allowed to start.

It’s a typical start date for the K-12 college preparatory school in Huntersville, and the school says the early start works: The charter’s academic performance is among the top 6% of schools statewide.

“Beginning school in the early part of August allows us to finish the entire first semester by the end of the calendar year, thus giving our high school students their final exams before they leave for winter break,” Sara Lay, community relations director, said. “This provides a critical and true physical and mental break from academics for our students over their holiday vacation.”

North Carolina public school districts, many of whom have seen student performance decline since the pandemic, have clamored for the ability to do what Lake Norman Charter does: start school in early August. But a nearly 20-year-old state law mandates that most public school districts must wait until the Monday closest to Aug. 26 to bring students back and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11.

North Carolina’s private and charter schools are not included in the law — meaning they have the freedom to set their own calendars.

Brian Lewis is a veteran lobbyist at the North Carolina General Assembly for the North Carolina Travel Industry Association and the calendar law. He says there’s a reason for that.

“At the time when the calendar law was passed, there weren’t a lot of charter schools,” said Lewis, who hosts the podcast Do Politics Better. “It’s not like what we have today. They were just not part of the discussion.”

And neither charter nor private schools are likely to be in the future.

“We’re trying to preserve the law and have not seen an opportunity to expand it,” Lewis said. “Charter schools have always been kind of incubators for experimentation. Parents choose charter schools based on a lot of factors. We’ve wisely given them leeway.”

Sen. Phil Berger, an Eden Republican, agrees with Lewis and doesn’t support imposing the calendar law on private or charter schools. As private schools, they make their own decisions, Berger says.

“The design of charters is that they are given more flexibility than traditional schools,” Berger said. “So I just don’t know that there’s a reason to change, as far as that’s concerned.”

Private, charter enrollment numbers

Eight years before lawmakers passed the calendar law in 2004, the N.C. General Assembly passed the Charter School Act, allowing the start of a charter system independent of existing schools. The goals: improve student learning, increase learning opportunities for all students and encourage the use of different and innovative teaching methods, among others.

There were 92 public charter schools in 2004, Joseph Letterio, an education consultant with the NC Office of Charter Schools, told The Charlotte Observer.

During the 2022-23 school year, 206 charter schools operated across the state, according to the 2022 annual Charter Schools Report. As of Dec, 1, 2022, there were more than 137,500 students attending charter schools, which represents about 9.5% of the total NC public school population of about 1.44 million.

More than 126,000 students are attending private schools, according to statewide figures released last month. That same report shows enrollment in private schools grew by 11,457 students during the 2022-23 school year.

“Public Schools First NC believes that if the calendar law is retained, all schools receiving state funds should be required to follow it,” Heather Koons, of Public Schools First NC, said. “However, we believe that locally-elected school boards who understand their community’s needs should have authority to set the local district’s calendar. It is one among many onerous laws that public schools are required to follow and not charters or private schools. It makes no sense at all.”

Kids ‘antsy’ for a break

Catholic schools across the Diocese of Charlotte come back this week. The Mecklenburg area schools came back Wednesday and some parish-based schools across the western half of the state came back Monday.

Catholic schools Superintendent Greg Monroe moved up the schools start date by a week since he joined the diocese in 2020.

“We like to end our school year right around Memorial Day, as vacation season and summer kick-in, and by that point, we have met our academic goals and kids are getting antsy for a break,” Monroe said. “We basically count back the number of instruction days we need, and fold in a healthy amount of time for families to enjoy the holidays — then set our start date based on that analysis.

Monroe says that formula generally means starting in mid-August.

“We find (it) works well because students have had a long summer break and are ready to dive back in, see their friends, and start a new chapter,” Monroe said.

Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan, the Capitol Bureau Chief for The News & Observer, contributed to this story.