State calendar law and school system calendar committees
State legislation sets parameters for school calendars that are developed by the school system with the help of committees which include school and community members and is recommended for approval by a vote of the Board of Education.State calendar law
You can see the state statute at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2003/Bills/House/HTML/H1464v6.html
The state statute requires a minimum of 180 days of school. In this time frame there are 11 paid holidays, 10 paid vacation days and 14 teacher work days.
Of the paid holidays, state law requires one must be Veterans’ Day. In recent years these have included:
- Labor Day
- Veterans Day – required by state law
- Two days at Thanksgiving
- Two days at Christmas
- New Year’s Day
- Dr. King’s Birthday
- Good Friday
- Memorial Day
There are five teacher workdays with mandated scheduling for traditional calendar schools as follows:
- one before first day for students
- one at end of first quarter
- one at end of second quarter
- one at end of third quarter
- one at end of fourth quarter
Another 9 additional teacher workdays are to be scheduled by the school system in consultation with school principals. These may occur “inside” the 180 student days as long as the final day for students does not occur after June 10.
The school system must also consider that certain days must be designated as inclement weather makeup days. They may not be the workdays mandated at the ends of the quarters, but may be other workdays. Makeup days may be added to the end of the year, but it must not make the final day for students occur after June 10. Vacation days may also be designated as possible makeup days. (such as Winter Break or Spring Break)
For year-round schools, year-round teachers have the teacher workdays in their track breaks. Make-up days are scheduled on the first Saturday following the inclement weather that allows the same three tracks to make up the day at the same time.
School Calendar committees
The school system has calendar committees for traditional, year-round and modified calendar schools.
The traditional calendar school committee includes parents, teachers, principals and central services staff. They consider the state statutes which include rules setting the first day for students not being earlier than August 25 and the final day for students not being later than June 10. If you are interested in serving on the traditional calendar committee, contact Dawn Dawson at dddawson@wcpss.net.
There are committees with school and parents members for the year-round and modified calendar schools. While they are exempted from the start and end dates required by statute, they must have a minimum of 180 school days and follow the requirements for holidays, vacation days and teacher workdays. If you are interested in serving on the year-round calendar committee, contact Christy Falba at cfalba@wcpss.net. If you are interested in serving on the modified calendar committee, contact Tamani Anderson Powell at tanderson-powell@wcpss.net.
The committee recommendations are presented to the Board of Education for information at a board meeting in the fall and several weeks later, the board is asked to vote approval of the school calendars.
To give parents plenty of planning time to assure their child’s school attendance, the Wake County Board of Education adopts school calendars two years ahead of the school year.