Onslow school calendar shift could benefit military families, but change in state legislation needed to make it happen
A possible school calendar shift could better benefit military families in Onslow County Schools - but a change in state legislation would have to take place.
The traditional 2023-24 school calendar was approved at an Onslow County school board meeting on Jan. 3. North Carolina state legislature determines requirements for how the school calendar must be structured.
Currently, legislation states that school calendars must start no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11. The calendar year must also have a minimum of 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction.
However, the county's military community could benefit from a 10-day shift.
"We're aware of ongoing discussions to seek waivers to start and end dates for highly impacted military communities," said Onslow County Schools Chief Communications Officer Brent Anderson during the Jan. 3 meeting. "This would include counties such as Onslow, Craven, Wayne and Cumberland. The military works on a different schedule than the schools and many changes of duty stations or PCS (permanent change of station) moves happen before the end of our current school semesters."
Flexibility of just ten student days, allowing the school year to begin around Monday, Aug. 14, would allow the district to have a more balanced semester, maintain workdays and complete the first semester prior to traditional Christmas break, Anderson explained.
This calendar shift would also allow the district to complete the school year prior to Memorial Day, the traditional beginning of summer. Anderson emphasized they are not wanting to extend the school year, but simply shift it, so school would start earlier and get out earlier.
This would benefit those military families who PCS'd in over the holidays. The new semester could begin without those students having to wait several weeks for exams to finish, because exams would have taken place before Christmas.
Anderson added the move for calendar flexibility is supported by base leadership.
"It's important for the board to know that no changes have been made to current calendar legislation," Anderson said. "General Assembly comes back into session soon and we are hopeful that there may be some movement but as of right now, the school calendar legislation remains the same as it has been."
Could the district move exams to before Christmas break without the start and end date shift? Yes, but it wouldn't look pretty.
Anderson said this adjustment would give the county's high schools a very lopsided school year. To have exams before Christmas given the current beginning and ending dates for the calendar, would give schools a 77-day first semester and a 107-day second semester.
"It would be possible to add instructional days in the first semester by removing two workdays or even extending the first semester into the week of Dec. 18," Anderson said. "However, these gains would be minimal at best."
Anderson added that removing the workdays traditionally built around military holidays and 96s would also complicate matters, specifically if the area was impacted by a hurricane, resulting in long-term power outages and the loss of significant instructional time which is always a concern living here on the coast.
The 10-day shift, however, would give the district an 83-day first semester and 92-day second semester. Not perfect, Anderson said, but much better than the 30-day difference.
OCS actually used this calendar for one year during COVID-19, and Anderson said it worked wonderfully.
"It would also put us in line with traditional community college calendars, which would allow our early graduates to go ahead and move into classes at the colleges as they come along and give an incentive to try and do that," Anderson said. "Whereas, right now, there's not as much of an incentive for students to make that move."
Southwest Elementary School Counselor Amanda Ashley said she sees how the shift could benefit the area's military families, and as a community with a large military population, she said we need to take military families into consideration.
However, personally, she doesn't have a preference on whether or not the shift happens, as they'll still be required to attend the same number of days/hours.
She would, however, like to see more workdays for the mental health of teachers and staff.
"There are a lot of demands being put on teachers and staff in the school systems across the country," Ashley said. "They are being spread thin. Having more teacher workdays would allow them to find more time to complete paperwork, grading and other things they are often taking home. Teachers need time for self-care given the demands that are put on them."
Ashley added this isn't an Onslow County issue but a country-wide issue. She encourages all to thank their school staff, regardless of what the calendar looks like, because many work hard year-round, even on days the calendar doesn't require them to.
For those hoping to see the change to calendar legislation, Anderson said the General Assembly is the most appropriate place to direct concerns about what that looks like.
"We've had discussions with the base and the military is very interested in working at this," Anderson said. "I think addressing any concerns and questions to our legislative officials, our delegation in Raleigh through that channel, also through military channels."
School board members Louis Rogers and Melissa Oakley voiced their agreement with such a calendar shift at the Jan. 3 meeting, and board vice chairman Ken Reddic voiced his concerns about legislators not being willing to change the legislation.
OCS Superintendent Barry Collins said that during the last legislative assembly, the House moved forward with changing the legislation, but when it got to the Senate, it failed.
Another concern has to do with tourism dollars. Many business owners want teenagers who can work at a low rate during peak seasons.
"Our ability to work with the military, I think, is our best bet right now," Collins said. "We seem to have a little bit of audience with folks when we share with them that we are a military town, and we can join with Cumberland and some of these other communities and come up with a bill that would address just those counties. I think that would be our best shot at this."
Reporter Morgan Starling can be reached at mstarling@jdnews.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Onslow school calendar shift could benefit military families, but change in state legislation needed to make it happen
