Early start?

Catawba County Schools leaders will consider starting school at an earlier date next year, which would be against state regulations. At Monday's meeting, the Catawba County Schools Board of Education was presented with six example school calendars for the 2025-2026 school year. The calendars included a fourday school week option, a traditional calendar and an option to start school earlier.

The calendars were presented by Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Rae Thompson. The first day of school on the early start calendar would be Aug. 18.



Under a traditional calendar, school would start on Aug. 25. In North Carolina, there is a law that states schools cannot start earlier than the Monday closest to Aug.

26, Thompson said. Thompson said many school districts adopted early start calendars despite the state regulation. The Iredell-Statesville Schools district in neighboring Iredell County started on Aug.

12 this year. "At this point, there's not been a financial burden put on systems that have started early," Thompson said. She added that two school systems on the North Carolina coast were threatened with lawsuits and decided to return to the traditional calendar.

Board member Tim Settlemyre said he liked the early start calendar. "We had a hurricane come through this year that basically erased a week of learning for our district, which, if we had started a week early this year, in hindsight, that would be great," Settlemyre said. Chairman Jeff Taylor asked if the early start calendar would balance the semesters.

Thompson said yes. Thompson said the first semester on the early start calendar would be 82 days, and the second would be 89. On the traditional calendar, the first semester would be 77 days and the second would be 88, Thompson said.

Board member Leslie Barnette said she likes the early start calendar and all that it offers, but thinks the board should continue to consider the traditional calendar, "because our board has always taken the stance that we're not willing to go against state statute as far as the starting date. I mean, that could change, but I think we should continue to look at that one for that reason." Thompson also proposed calendars with four-day school weeks.

Taylor and Settlemyre had concerns. "A lot of times, our schools are a place where our kids can come and get fed and they get loved. And some of them don't get that at home, so losing that day a week kind of worries me," Settlemyre said.

Taylor agreed. "I've heard it said that for far too many of our students, the seven hours they spend in school is the best seven hours of their day," he said. The school board took no action on the school calendar at the meeting.

Miya Banks is an education reporter at the Hickory Daily Record. Get local news delivered to your inbox!.