BYKARISSA MILLER
The Iredell-Statesville Schools Board of Education on Monday voted 4-2 to approve the 2024-2025 school calendar Option 1, which includes an August 12 start date.
Board members Anita Kurn, Mike Kubiniec, Bill Howell and Charles Kelly voted in favor of Option 1. Board members Abby Trent and Brian Sloan cast dissenting votes. Meanwhile, Doug Knight abstained from voting because it does not conform to state law and not being in the best interest of students.
Under the approved calendar, which is similar to the current calendar, the school year will begin on August 12, 2024, and the last day of school would be May 23, 2025.
Winter break for students would begin on December 23, 2024 and students would return to school on January 6, 2025. Students would attend school for 176 days or 1,056 hours.
I-SS Director of Accountability, Testing and Student Information Laura Elliot outlined the reasons why Option 1 is favorable for students and families.
“Option 1 would be aligned with our three early colleges. Our high students taking CCP (dual enrollment college) classes will be aligned with our Mitchell (Community College) calendar,” Elliot explained.
“If we have students going to our early college and our traditional are out, that’s bus transportation. That means staff that work at the traditional have to work at the early college or vice versa,” she added.
The approved calendar also allows high school students to take final exams for their first semester courses before winter break.
Elliot said she’s heard positive feedback from high school students at her church who liked ending their school semester prior to Christmas.
“We don’t have that learning loss. Even though it’s only two weeks, you don’t want to go home and study Biology over Christmas,” Elliot said. “Any time you can take the exams prior to Christmas that’s best for our students.”
Another reason school officials favor Option 1 is because of the number of seniors who finish all of their graduation requirements at the end of the first semester. If the semester ends in December, they are able to enroll in college in January.
Lastly, it was pointed out that early college students would miss three weeks of instruction under Option 2, which has a later start date.
Board members delayed the vote on adopting the school calendar because they struggled with whether to implement a calendar that does not adhere to North Carolina’s school calendar laws. The law requires public schools to start “no earlier than the Monday closest to August 26 and end by the Friday closest to June 11.”
Chairman Howell said that the N.C. General Assembly is divided about the school calendar law.
“The N.C. Senate will not like it if we choose to go early; however, the N.C. House will not interfere with our choice to go with an early calendar,” said Howell.