UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Parents in Union County are weighing in on the school district’s controversial and newly approved 2023-24 school year calendar.
The new calendar, approved in an unanimous vote this week, will set the first day of school as Wednesday, August 9. The school year would then end on Wednesday, May 22, 2024.
The new date, which is roughly three weeks earlier than usual, has proven controversial with parents who say it disrupts already planned summer activities in 2023 and shortens the 2023 summer for students.
What You Need To Know
UCPS calendar would bring students back August 9 for start of 2023-24 school year
New start date breaks state statute, bringing kids back too early
Unclear if UCPS will face any penalty, or if state law will change as more counties join the trend of earlier starts to the school year
Also, the new date runs in conflict with existing state statute, which says school start dates are supposed to be the Monday closest to August 26.
A Facebook post from Union County Public Schools announcing the new calendar had hundreds of comments.
One of the commenters, Dominique Morrison, said it negatively impacts her local business.
“We teach horseback riding lessons, obviously, but we also run a pretty hefty summer camp, where I saw close to 300 kids last year,” Morrison said at her Honeysuckle Riding Academy in Union County.
The business, in operation roughly 20 years, is Morrison’s passion.
“My mom rode when she was little in Holland, and then she bought us ponies. I got my first pony when I was 6,” Morrison said.
But, as a business owner, she is frustrated her ability to host 2023 summer camps will now be cut short, due to the newly approved Union County Public Schools academic calendar.
“I had set my camp backs.I had gotten deposits for these camp dates in August, and now I have parents saying, ‘We have to go to school,'” Morrison said. “Therefore, I lost a couple thousand dollars yesterday, just alone, in people backing out.”
Morrison said she will have to cut the number of 2023 summer camps from 11 to seven, costing her at least $30,000.
“That money carries over, currently, for our winter months. So, the money that I’m spending now to help feed these horses, was the money I made in 2022 summer,” Morrison added.
Morrison is also a mother to a UCPS student and said she does not mind the new dates if there had been warning and time to plan.
“Not only does it help carry me through so I can keep my horses for their whole entire lives. It also feeds my family,” Morrison said.
Morrison and other parents who spoke to Spectrum News 1 on Tuesday and Wednesday said the UCPS schedule caught them by surprise. They claimed the district had sent out a parent survey, giving two dates for a potential start date later in August. So, when the board unanimously approved an early August start date, they were caught off guard.
“In my opinion it was probably a waste of time to send me two surveys,” Nichole Chowning said. “Had this been an option in those surveys, I think it would have been a much more productive use of people’s time.”
Chowning, who supports the new calendar, said she understood other parents’ frustrations with the surprise date.
“So for me, not a huge impact but I get it. From a planning — and I’m a planner — I get that. Could it have been handled a little differently? Yes. Am I happy the change is happening? Yes,” Chowning said.
Chowning has two students in UCPS schools, including a high schooler. The new schedule would allow her high schooler, and all high schoolers, to take their end of semester winter finals before winter break, instead of after.
“As a high schooler, being able to take your finals before you go on winter break, just, to me, makes logical sense. I think it sets them up for success,” Chowning said, citing the main reason she supports the change.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction sent a statement about UCPS’ decision, saying in part, “The State Board does not have a written policy for what steps to take if an LEA does not comply with calendar laws. The calendar law itself does not provide for any sanction and the State Board and Department of Public Instruction are therefore limited in their enforcement authority and ability on this issue.”
The law could also change in the near future. This week, the North Carolina House Select Committee on Education recommended the General Assembly change the law, saying, “[It] creates a school calendar that is not best suited to the needs of students and educators. To better meet those needs, the Committee finds that local boards of education should be given greater calendar flexibility.”
For the complete layout of UCPS’ new calendar, click here.
