Tourism industry 1, schools 0. Coastal NC district drops appeal of school calendar law.
“Under protest,” school leaders in a popular coastal tourism are dropping their plans this year to defy North Carolina’s school calendar law.
The Carteret County school board approved Friday a new calendar for the 2024-25 school year that complies with state law by starting classes on Aug. 26. The board also dropped its appeal of a court order that had challenged the district’s efforts to not follow the calendar law.
The board’s decision came a day after a Superior Court judge rejected Carteret’s request to stay the June 5 court ruling that voided their plan to start classes on Aug. 13. Carteret County is home to popular summer beach tourism areas such as Atlantic Beach, Beaufort, Emerald Isle and Morehead City.
“We recognize that an appeal would take time, and we cannot hold our students and their families in limbo this summer over when the school year will start,” said school board member Dennis Goodwin. “Therefore under protest in compulsion of an order and judgment of the court and without waiving our position that the calendar statute is unconstitutional, I move the adoption of the attached calendar.”
As part of the vote Friday, the board said it would encourage individual board members and the superintendent “to explore all options to give our students equal opportunities” with those students in schools that don’t have to follow the calendar law.
Tourism industry fights back
State lawmakers have regulated school calendars for 20 years, since the tourism industry raised concerns about classes starting earlier in August.
The state’s traditional public schools can’t open sooner than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 or close later than the Friday closest to June 11. The calendar law doesn’t apply to private schools, charter schools, year-round schools and early college high schools.
Carteret County had been among 29 school districts cited in a recent state report as defying the calendar law. Statewide, a quarter of North Carolina’s school districts plan to ignore the school calendar law for the upcoming school year.
In December, the Carteret County school board unanimously approved a 2024-25 school year calendar that would run from Aug. 13 to May 22. School leaders cited academic benefits such as allowing high school students to finish fall semester exams before winter break.
But in April, the owners of Atlantic Beach Surf Shop, Marsh’s Surf Shop and Sanitary Fish Market & Restaurant filed a lawsuit to block the calendar.
The business owners said the loss of revenue from shortening the summer season would be significant. Located about 150 miles from Raleigh, Carteret County is flooded with visitors during the summer months.
“We are pleased that the school board finally adopted a legal calendar, though it was forced on them by a Court order,” Mitch Armbruster, the attorney for the businesses, said in an email Friday. “These school board members took an oath to follow the law, and they violated it. The students and parents of Carteret County deserve better.”
Is the calendar law unconstitutional?
The school board had argued that the school calendar law violates the state Constitution’s call that “equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.”
“The calendar statute is not fair to our students and puts them at a disadvantage when competing with peers in schools with calendar flexibility,” Goodwin said. “We believe the start and end dates in the calendar statute do not comport with the guarantees of our Constitution.”
The district’s argument hadn’t worked with the trial judge. But school leaders had been prepared to make their constitutional claims to the N.C. Court of Appeals.
“If the school board thought their frivolous claims that the school calendar statute is unconstitutional had any merit, they would not have dropped their appeal,” said Armbruster.
The newly adopted calendar will run from Aug. 26 to June 5. High school students will take their fall semester exams in January after returning from winter break.
“For the first time in four years on the board, I truly feel we’re about to make a decision that’s not in the best interests of our students,” said school board vice chair Katie Statler. “It will be the first time walking out of here that I have felt that.”
