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May 20
FIRST, THE GOOD NEWS:
- Out of 13 school-calendar-related bills this year, only 3 stayed alive, and that is something to be proud of and thankful for!
- BUT DON’T STOP NOW! Please keep those calls, emails, and even hand-written letters pouring in to your Senators, and be sure to let your Representatives know how you feel about their vote last week. You can EASILY contact your legislators via e-mail here.
NOW, THE NOT-SO-GOOD NEWS:
HB593, which would allow school boards to set the start date as early as the second Monday in August (and that means some years August 8) passed through the House on May 13. Its second reading passed by a vote of 76–41. BUT, the version that passed was amended so that schools could not end “more than 42 weeks later” than the start date.
The third and final vote count was 79-39, taken just a few minutes after the other. It appears that Representatives Crawford (parts of Granville and Vance counties) and Tillis (part of Mecklenburg county) switched from a “no” vote (in our favor) to a “yes” vote (in favor of our opponents). Go here for a breakdown of that vote.
Thanks to Representative McElraft (Carteret and Jones counties) for placing two documents from Save Our Summers-NC at the seats of all House members as they entered the chamber last week for the vote. These documents testify to the importance of keeping the 2004 school calendar law intact, and also include facts and insights regarding common arguments from opposition groups. Please take a moment to read these documents here and here. We were told that point #2 in the letter document had “a great impact” on amending the wording of the original bill to read, “the closing date for students shall not be more than 42 weeks later” than the start date.
Here is a link to HB593 as it now reads: (PDF document) This bill has now been sent to the Senate, where we are hoping it will die (although it will be eligible for consideration again next year).
MORE NEWS...
Also on May 12, HB 636 passed the House and will be sent on to the Senate. This bill would allow the present June 10 closing date to move to as late as June 13 and also provide for changes to teacher workdays to be determined by LEAs. You can read this bill here.
HB1306 is now a “study bill.” What the bill does is instruct a committee to study the school calendar issue over the period between legislative sessions, and issue a report to the 2010 Short Session of the General Assembly. The point of a study (besides actually studying the issue) is that any recommendations made by the committee are eligible to be introduced as new legislation in the Short Session next year. Find the new wording to HB1306 here (PDF document).
WHO ARE WE?
SOS North Carolina is a volunteer coalition of parents, grandparents, education professionals and others who seek to establish, protect and maintain a more traditional school calendar for elementary and secondary schools throughout the state. The objective is to preserve the summer months for outside-the-classroom childhood and family learning experiences and for valuable "real-life” opportunities.
 Snapshot Summary....HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
September 24, 2008
URGENT CALL TO ACTION!
The 2004 School Calendar Law is in imminent danger!
 When the 2009 session of the NC General Assembly convenes, you can be sure that the School Calendar Law (which established August 25 as the earliest school start date) will be a major target.
There have been, and will be, major turnovers in the make-up of our state's governing body, and we know for certain that the 2004 law faces its greatest threat ever. The fact that we “dodged the bullet” in 2008 has made opponents even more determined to rid this state of a more uniform school calendar once and for all.
If you treasure a more traditional summer, as many of us enjoyed this year, then you will take the following steps NOW to keep it from disappearing:
1) Email, write, and/or call your representatives and senators and let any who will be on the ballot in November know that this is an election issue! We make it easy for you to send e-mails from our website...just click on the link above, then select the county where you live.
2) Contact anyone you can think of and spread this news by any means you can think of – we must increase our support base by thousands! There's a link immediately to the left where you can e-mail your friends from this site.
3) Write letters of support to your local newspapers, and call local radio talk shows, etc.
4) Keep checking this site for important updates
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Please, please be aware of the urgency of this message! We will need to remain diligent over many months, but we must begin NOW if we want to succeed. Thank –you, and remember that YOU make a difference!!
Also, please consider making a donation to Save Our Summers – NC. Without contributions from people like you over the past two years, the School Calendar Law as we know it would probably not be in effect. Those resources have been depleted, and we are in dire need of funding to continue lobbying efforts, to keep up this website, to send out information, etc. As you know, SOS-NC is a non-profit organization, so we depend on our supporters to keep us afloat. Thank you in advance for any help you can give us!
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