After Complaints, School District Gives Students Memorial Day Off

GOLDSBORO, N.C. — The Wayne County Board of Education will amend the school district's calendar to give students Memorial Day off after receiving numerous complaints from parents.

But students will have to make up the day on the Saturday afterward.

May 31 was the only compromise the school system could make with parents who complained that school was open May 26, Wayne County Public Schools spokesman Ken Derksen said.

"North Carolina law regarding school calendars is so strict, and it's so close to the end of the school year, the board is limited in their options of what they could do," he said.

Adding a school day to the end of the year was not an option, Derksen said, because it ends on a Friday and graduations have already been set.

State law requires a certain number of school days each academic year. A calendar committee consisting of parents, administrators and representatives from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in Goldsboro created the school schedule last spring to include the May 26 holiday as a school day.

But in the military community surrounding Seymour Johnson, parents wanted students to be able to observe the day out of school

The Saturday makeup day will be a half-day of school. Schools that had scheduled Memorial Day events will move those to May 31.