BY KARISSA MILLER
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education unanimously approved the district’s academic calendar for the 2022-2023 school year on Monday night.
During their meeting, the board voted to approve Option B3, which incorporates feedback administrators and the board received from staff and suggestions from board member Martin Page.
Under this calendar, the 2022-2023 school year will begin August 29, 2022, and end on June 9, 2023.
After the last board meeting, I-SS Director of Testing, Accountability and Student Information Laura Elliot solicited additional input from staff regarding how an earlier draft of 2022-2023 school calendar could be improved.
Based on that feedback, she suggested several small changes that were included in calendar Option B3, including:
♦ Making November 1 a teacher workday instead of November 2. This gives the students the day off after Halloween. The first nine weeks will end on October 31.
♦ Adding December 21 and December 22 as teacher workdays. This will give students 14 days off for the holiday break.
♦ Adding April 11 as a teacher workday. This will give students off a total of five days for Easter break.
The most popular requests by staff were for a longer Christmas Break and more days off for Easter.
The changes were made, she explained, by reducing the total number of student days from 177 to 175. There are 1,079.7 hours in the schedule.
N.C. law requires 1,025 hours, which means there is some flexibility in the event that students are out of school for inclement weather.
Also, during the meeting, the board unanimously approved a draft resolution requesting to move the school start date of the 2022-2023 school calendar.
Currently, the board must approve a calendar that follows school calendar laws rather than set their own calendar like most states.
In 2004, N.C. General Assembly set a mandatory start date and end date for schools.
Superintendent Jeff James said that the state laws governing school calendars are not beneficial for students.
The late start date has significant impact on parents and students as students have to take high-stakes exams after the winter break. It also causing scheduling issues for families who have students in the districts early college programs, which begin and end the academic year two weeks earlier, and traditional schools.
The school board is also requesting that the Iredell County Board of Commissioners approve a resolution supporting their request to move the school start date.
2022-2023 Academic Calendar for Traditional I-SS Schools
