A first semester ending days before Christmas, spring break the first week of April and a start date complying with state law are some parts of the 2023-24 Franklin area and Highlands school calendars unanimously approved by the Macon County Board of Education on Monday night.
“We did our best to come up with a calendar that met the requirements of everyone that was present,” Technology Director Tim Burrell said of the calendar committee meetings.
For the Franklin area schools and Highlands, the first day of class is Monday, Aug. 28. End of the first quarter is Thursday, Oct. 19, for Franklin area and Friday, Oct. 20, for Highlands. The last day of the semester is Friday, Dec. 22. The second half begins Monday, Jan. 8, 2024, for everyone. The end of the third quarter is Tuesday, March 7, for Franklin area and Friday, March 8, for Highlands. Spring break starts with a holiday on Good Friday, March 29 and runs through the week of April 1-5. The last day of class is Friday, May 24.
The major difference in the 2023-24 calendars from this current year is that the first semester will finish before Christmas, instead of having exams in January. FHS Principal Mickey Noe told the board he and his staff were “110%” behind testing before Christmas and pushed hard for the change.
“Everyone likes for that clean start right after Christmas, everyone can enjoy their time,” Noe told the board.
Superintendent Chris Baldwin said that with testing after Christmas break, there’s a week of review built in upon returning in January, meaning the instructional time works out evenly.
The last day of the first semester, Friday, Dec. 22, will be a half day on the Franklin area calendar. Noe said there are “maybe 40 students” attending that day as it’s more of an exam make-up day.
The initial calendars given to the schools for faculty and staff review had spring break being the last week of March, but Burrell said the principals wanted an April spring break week.
“Version 6” of the Franklin area calendar received approval from the school board. In total, that calendar has 1,064.7 hours of instruction (more than the 1,025 minimum required) over 169 student days, 194 teacher days, 10 annual leave days, 25 workdays and 11 holidays.
“It’s kind of a little puzzle you have to move around,” Burrell told the board.
Baldwin said the state law reads “185 days or 1025 hours” of instruction, noting that 185 days would equal 1,110 hours.
One negative of having exams before Christmas is that the two semesters are imbalanced, as state law requires traditional school systems start classes the Monday closest to Aug. 26.
“Most school systems are around 180-181 days,” Baldwin said. “We added 20 minutes to our school day years ago so we could cram enough instructional time in the fall semester so we can be able to test before Christmas. Sometimes we’re able to, sometimes we’re not.”
Due to their own geography and needs, Highlands and Nantahala schools have their own calendars, which differs slightly from the Franklin area schools. One example is that Highlands has the entire week of Thanksgiving off due to a high number of substitutes needed and general lack of substitutes available in the past when Highlands has had instructional days that week. Nantahala did not submit a calendar request to MCS in time for Monday’s meeting and that request will be heard at the school board’s February meeting.
Board chair Jim Breedlove confirmed with principals in attendance that the calendars were vetted by their staffs.
Board member Hilary Wilkes said parents are already texting her asking when spring break 2024 will be and joked that a March spring break week at the beach is cold.
Breedlove asked about potential movement of the school start day by the N.C. General Assembly. Baldwin said that there’s school calendar bills proposed every year, but no action is taken on them.
Further, it was noted that some North Carolina school systems are engaging in “civil disobedience” by setting a first day earlier than the law requires. Breedlove said he would prefer moving the first day of class to align with Macon Early College around Aug. 15, giving MCS more flexibility in having built-in weather days and allowing more equal semesters.
The full calendars will be posted on the Macon County Schools website, macon.k12.nc.us.
There will be more coverage from the Jan. 23 school board meeting in next week’s edition of The Franklin Press.