By Kathi Keys

Staff Writer, The Asheboro Courier-Tribune

12-10-04

ASHEBORO - Asheboro City Schools students will start the 2005-06 school year on Thursday, Aug. 25, 2005, and end classes on Friday, June 9, 2006.

School will start about 10 days later than has been the practice in the past due to the state's new school calendar law which mandates that school start no earlier than Aug. 25 and end no later than June 10, effective with the 2005-06 school year.

The "blue" calendar adoptions for both next year and the 2006-07 school year came Thursday night after a nearly half-hour discussion by members of the Asheboro City Board of Education about the "blue" and "white" options for each of the next two school years.

Both adopted calendars provide for 180 instructional days, which remains unchanged from previous school years; 10 holidays (Veterans Day is a required state holiday next year; city schools have used this day as a teacher workday); 10 annual leave days for staff; and 15 teacher workdays (a reduction next year from the previous 20 in accordance with the new state school calendar law) for a total of 215 days in the school year. A teacher workday must also be scheduled at the end of each grading period.

Both calendars also provide for the traditional Thanksgiving break for students, from Wednesday through Sunday, and allow more than a week's spring break.

The adopted 2005-06 school year calendar provides for the first teachers workday on Friday, Oct. 7, and schools to be closed Monday, Oct. 10, creating a four-day weekend; a Christmas break for students from Thursday, Dec. 22, through Monday, Jan. 2 (a teacher workday).

First semester ends Thursday, Jan. 19, after the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, with teacher workdays scheduled Friday, Jan. 20, and Monday, Jan. 23. Spring break would be Friday, April 14, through Sunday, April 23; Friday, April 28, would be a teacher workday at the end of the grading period.

There is additionally a teacher workday, at the end of a grading period, on March 10.

The staff reports Thursday, Aug. 18.

The date and time for the Class of 2006's graduation has not been determined. Superintendent Dr. Diane Frost said this will be decided at a later date and reminded the board not to assume that graduation will be at its traditional time.

The final vote adopting the 2005-06 calendar came on a 9-2 vote, with board members Archie Priest Jr. and Derek Robbins casting the dissenting votes. Both had originally supported the "white" calendar option and adjusting the calendar to allow for two half days of instruction each semester for staff development time.

The 2006-07 school year will start Friday, Aug. 25, 2006, and end on Friday, June 9, 2007. Christmas break is Thursday, Dec. 21, through Monday, Jan. 1.

The 2006-07 calendar was approved on an 8-3 vote with Stan Haywood voting against it along with Priest and Robbins.

The two options for each school year were posted in city schools, shared with staff via Monday Musings emails, outlined in fliers (in English and Spanish) for parents and posted on the school district's website. Parents and staff were given a two-week feedback period during which the school district received 24 comments, mostly favoring the "blue" options. Several board members said they received feedback in support of the blue calendar.

The calendar committee of parents, staff, administrators, two school board members and one student prepared the two calendar choices without giving a preferred choice for either school year.

The original 2005-06 school year calendar, adopted last spring on a 6-5 vote before the state calendar bill was approved by the General Assembly this summer, had students starting school early, on Aug. 9, with classes ending May 24.

School began this year on Tuesday, Aug. 17. Classes will end for students on Friday, June 3.