Bladen County School Board discusses calendar flexibility

BLADEN COUNTY, NC (WWAY) — The debate over North Carolina’s rules for school calendars has heated up again, this time in Bladen County.

The school board like many others is looking for more flexibility in the schedule.

Educators have been asking for years for North Carolina lawmakers to loosen rules on when the school year can start and end.

“We’ve often thought it would be nice to have the first semester end before Christmas break. That gives students a chance to finish out courses from that semester, take their break, go home, relax, enjoy their time with their family and then come back after the Christmas break ready to start the next semester,” Bladen County Schools spokeswoman Valerie Newton said.

Bladen County Schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Taylor said school should start earlier to get out before the holiday because it would benefits student.

“As school districts we really want to have a flexibility with the calendar that allows us to align our schedule with the community college. It allows high school students not to have to take final exams in January after the Christmas break,” Dr. Taylor said.

North Carolina adopted a statewide school calendar in 2004 at the urging of the tourism industry and parents who wanted to keep summers as free time.

But many districts argue the tight time frame limits their ability to deal with days lost to things like hurricanes or snow.

“You’re going to have those who think it’s a great idea for the students to come back sooner so that they can finish out their semester before school, and then your going to have those who would rather have an extended summer and let the students come back towards the end of august and extend that semester on through Christmas break, so there’s gonna be two sides to that,” Newton said.

We reached out to state representative William Brisson and Senator Bill Rabon, who represent Bladen County in the general assembly. We have not yet heard back