“In protest,” school principals in a popular coastal tourist destination are canceling plans for this year in defiance of North Carolina’s school calendar law.
The Carteret County School Board on Friday approved a new calendar for the 2024-25 school year that complies with state law by starting classes on Aug. 26. The board also dropped an appeal of a court order that challenged the district’s efforts not to follow the calendar law.
The board’s decision came one day after a Superior Court judge denied Carteret County’s request to stay enforcement of a June 5 court ruling that invalidated plans to start classes on Aug. 13. Carteret County is home to areas popular for summer beach tourism, including Atlantic Beach, Beaufort, Emerald Isle and Morehead City.
“We understand that an appeal will take time, and we cannot leave students and their families in limbo this summer on when the new school year will begin,” said School Board member Dennis Goodwin, “so under protest to enforce the court’s order and ruling, we are proposing to adopt the attached calendar without abandoning our position that the calendar law is unconstitutional.”
As part of Friday’s vote, the board said it encourages individual board members and the superintendent to “explore all options to give our students an equal opportunity” with students in schools that don’t have to follow the calendar.
Tourism industry fights back
State lawmakers have been regulating the school calendar for two decades after the tourism industry expressed concerns about classes starting earlier than August.
The state’s traditional public schools cannot open earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 or close later than the Friday closest to June 11. The calendar law does not apply to private schools, charter schools, year-round schools or early college-track high schools.
Carteret County was one of 29 school districts cited in a recent state report for violating the calendar law. Across North Carolina, a quarter of the state’s school districts plan to ignore the school calendar law in the upcoming school year.
In December, the Carteret County Board of Education unanimously approved the 2024-25 school calendar, which runs from Aug. 13 to May 22. School leaders cited academic benefits, including allowing high school students to finish fall semester exams before winter break.
But in April, the owners of Atlantic Beach Surf Shop, Marsh’s Surf Shop and Sanitary Fish Market & Restaurant filed a lawsuit to block the calendar from being released.
Business owners said the loss of revenue from the shortened summer season would be significant in Carteret County, about 150 miles from Raleigh, which is typically swarmed with tourists during the summer.
“We are pleased that the school board has finally adopted the statutory schedule, although it was forced to do so by court order,” Mitch Armbruster, an attorney for the corporations, said in an email Friday. “School board members swore to abide by the law and then broke it. Carteret County students and parents deserve better.”
Is the calendar law unconstitutional?
The school board had argued that the school calendar law violated the state constitution’s provision that “every pupil shall have an equal opportunity.”
“The calendar system is unfair to students and puts them at a disadvantage when competing with their peers at schools that have calendar flexibility,” Goodwin said. “We believe the calendar system’s start and end dates violate constitutional guarantees.”
The district’s arguments did not hold up before a judge, but the school was prepared to take constitutional arguments to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.
“If the Board of Education believed there was any basis for its unfounded assertion that the school calendar law is unconstitutional, it would not have withdrawn its appeal,” Armbruster said.
The newly adopted calendar will run from August 26 to June 5. High school students will take their fall semester exams in January after returning from winter break.
“I’ve been on the board for four years and for the first time I feel like we’re on the brink of making decisions that are not in the best interest of our students,” said School Board Vice Chair Katie Statler. “This is the first time I feel that way as I leave here.”
