By MATT LAMB
Staff Writer
The numbers are in, and the results are overwhelming: Moore County would prefer students start school early and finish first-semester testing before the holiday break.
The Board of Education this past month received findings from a recent survey to determine the community’s preference between an “early start” or “traditional” school calendar for the 2026-2027 school year.
Of the 943 individuals who responded, 671 noted that they prefer the early calendar. Only 230 selected the traditional calendar, and 42 said they had no preference either way. Respondents included parents, teachers, students, district staff and community members.
School districts in North Carolina have long been hamstrung by the General Assembly, which since 2004 has dictated when traditional public schools can start and end their school years. Following the adoption of state-wide school calendar legislation, students must make their way back to the classroom no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and be released for summer no later than the Friday closest to June 11.
Like other school systems across the state, Moore County Schools frequently broached the idea of transitioning away from the traditional calendar.
The legislation that has drawn the ire of many districts was initially a product of a collective effort between the tourism industry and “Save Our Summers,” a civic organization that pressured the legislature to prevent students from returning to school earlier in the summer.
Several districts have chosen to break the state calendar law to create uniformity with local community colleges and allow high school students to take final exams before Christmas break.
Despite relative unanimity among school board members that an alternative calendar would better serve students, the board has been split on how to move forward. However, two pieces of pending legislation could make the decision more palatable.
Filed by Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger — a longtime opponent of school calendar flexibility — Senate Bill 754 would provide school districts with slight wiggle room. The bill allows for two options: Districts follow the current law, or start as early as the Monday closest to Aug 19, with the school year ending no later than the Friday before Memorial Day.
While the bill would allow schools to start a week early, it mandates that each semester have the same number of educational days, which, according to Superintendent Tim Locklair, won’t work for Moore County Schools.
“That basically doesn’t give us any flexibility,” said Locklair. “It wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t allow us to test before the Christmas holidays.”
Additionally, the new bill imposes a more serious set of sanctions for districts that breach the calendar law, where violators could lose funding for central office staff and supplies. Moreover, local residents and business owners could sue local school boards for not complying with the state law.
On the other side of the General Assembly, House Bill 121 all but eliminates restrictions on school boards regarding when they set their start and end dates. The district would primarily need only to satisfy the state’s requirements for how much time students spend in the classroom, currently set at 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction.
Several districts across the state have defied the state’s current calendar law with varying degrees of success. Some, like Carteret County, have been embroiled in pricey lawsuits and ordered to renounce their early start calendar.
School board member Pauline Bruno has led the charge to buck the state’s law.
“I am not for this at all, and I won’t vote for it,” she said earlier this year about complying with current state law. “I think it’s about time Moore County goes on the early start.
“I know it’s against the law, and I know what everybody’s going to say, but look, teachers know that I am not for this traditional (calendar), that I am for the early start. I get phone call after phone call. ‘Mrs Bruno, please try and do something. We’re teaching these kids. We finish at Christmas. We have to re-teach them when they come back in January for testing.”
Other board members, like board Chair Robin Calcutt, Ken Benway and Shannon Davis, have agreed that the calendar is wrong for Moore County, but have said they are compelled to follow the law.
While it’s yet to be seen how much traction the two new bills receive — a key legislative deadline is this week — Locklair said the district is in a good place to deviate from the proposed calendar if possible.
“We usually are two years ahead on the calendar, so this is kind of our normal rhythm of approving that,” he said. “There’s no obligation that we have to approve it. This is just something we’ve always done to try to have planning out there way ahead in time for families.”
He added, “If there was a law that was passed that allowed us to have flexibility, the board could revisit the calendar during the summer or early fall, and still give folks a long time to plan if we wanted to go ahead with an earlier start calendar in 26-27.”
Contact Matt Lamb at (910) 693-2479 or mlamb@thepilot.com.
