....We've replaced our normal home screen with this page temporarily to make you aware of some critical developments that require your IMMEDIATE ATTENTION.

Important News from SOS-NC...April 2012
>>>Click here to go to the regular SOS-NC home screen<<<
The scrolling news bar on the right side of the page linked above will give you the latest information on NC's school calendar issues. Be sure to go there and read.

So much has been happening lately with regard to the 2004 School Calendar Law that it has been next to impossible to keep our website updated. We apologize for that. Even this “nutshell” version is going to be long! Please bear in mind that most of our earlier volunteers have “moved on” since 2004, so we are reaching out to our current supporters, asking for help as we attempt to monitor districts throughout the state (which involves a lot of research), bring about some accountability, and work with education leaders and lawmakers on local and statewide levels. Any help is greatly appreciated! (Email us at SaveOurSummers@gmail.com)

One thing is for sure: the time has come to revitalize the Save Our Summers – North Carolina movement – and the sooner the better! Why the urgency? Keep reading for just a sampling of what we have been dealing with:

1) Suddenly school systems are meeting the requirements to receive a weather-related waiver when they haven’t even come close in the past. How can this be?

In 2010, the General Assembly passed a law that made it much easier for districts to qualify for such waivers. Up until then, since 2004, the law called for school districts to look back over the past ten years. If, during that period, at least four years could be found when all schools in the district missed eight days of school or more (largely for weather-related reasons), then that district met the criteria to apply for (and receive) a waiver from the August 25 and June 10 parameters set forth in the 2004 “School Calendar Law.”

The new law (click link to read the law in PDF format...it will open in a new window so you can easily return to this page) states, for the purpose of meeting the above weather-waiver requirements, “a school shall be deemed to be closed for part of a day if it is closed for two or more hours.”

So what have some districts done? They have gone back and changed figures from their 10-year tally to now include any days that had at least a two-hour delay or early dismissal. Here is a chart (pdf version or original spreadsheet [Excel format]) showing “preliminary number of days missed” from 2001 to 2010 prior to the 2010 law. Compare that with the most current figures (PDF document) from the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) after the “partial days” law was passed.

Here’s the problem: DPI does not check for accuracy when this data is turned in by local districts. SOS-NC’s president and some local citizens in a few districts are, and have been, the only ones since 2004 trying to ensure that no faulty figures are used in an attempt to qualify for a weather-related waiver. They have already uncovered discrepancies in Macon County’s figures. In fact, that system has changed its data at least four times! Read more on that here.

What should you do if your district is claiming that it now qualifies for a weather-related waiver? With time being critical, you must contact your district’s central office and insist upon seeing raw data for each individual school that proves that it truly did miss or have a two-hour delay/early dismissal for eight days during the years that your school system claims it did. If only some schools qualified in any given year, that does not excuse the entire system. If you find questionable and/or confusing data, persevere until you get to the truth. Also, please email us right away and we will help in any way that we can.

2) More and more school districts are starting school in early August to accommodate a small percentage of students who travel off campus to take Community College classes. Is this allowable?

Yes it is, IF the district applies for and receives an educational waiver. Educational waivers from the legal start and end dates can be granted by the NC State Board of Education (NCBOE) provided the school system establishes a need to adopt a different calendar for any one of the following reasons:

(i) a specific school to accommodate a special program offered generally to the student body of that school

(ii) a school that primarily serves a special population of students, or

(iii) a defined program within a school.

The NCBOE must agree that the waiver request “is reasonable, the accommodation is necessary to accomplish the educational purpose, and the request is not an attempt to circumvent the opening and closing dates…” Also, “The waiver requests for educational purposes shall not be used to accommodate system-wide class scheduling preferences.”

As you can imagine, the NCBOE has much leeway when it comes to making decisions.

An added variable this year is the Career and College Promise program (click link to read more about this program...it will open in a new web browser window), which provides students with an opportunity to earn credits by taking classes at local community colleges. The NCBOE is granting educational waivers to districts that claim they need to align high school start dates with Community College start dates. However, some systems are starting earlier than the Community Colleges for ulterior reasons.

Something to keep in mind: Transportation problems are not a valid reason to qualify for an educational waiver – neither are exam schedule preferences, nor payroll issues. If your district is publicly claiming any of these reasons for starting early, please inform us as soon as possible.

Typically, the NCBOE acts upon educational waiver requests through April and weather-related waiver requests starting in May, but that can vary since the NCBOE does not enforce its own deadlines. http://www.ncpublicschools.org/stateboard/meetings/ will take you to a page where you can access current and past NCBOE agendas (third column of the table on this page) to follow waiver actions. Look for the words, “School-Based Calendar Waivers” once you pull up the monthly agenda.

>>>Click here to go to the regular SOS-NC home screen<<<
The scrolling news bar on the right side of the page linked above will give you the
latest information on NC's school calendar issues. Be sure to go there and read.