Wake eyes school calendar changes, signs new driver's ed contracts

The Wake County Board of Education will vote this month on a proposal to add six early release days to next school year’s calendar and add a teacher workday for some year-round students.

School board members have continued to expression frustration with the idea of doing early-release days, though some said Tuesday they are not sure what other options they have.

“Having all of those hours outside of the school day seems to be a strain on our teachers,” Board Member Christine Kushner said.

Wake County Public School System leaders are proposing six early release days, of two hours each, to provide educators with more time to do state-mandated instruction for a new method of teaching reading.

The North Carolina General Assembly is requiring all public schools to conduct two years of training on reading instruction for K-5 teachers totaling 137.5 to 168 total estimated hours of work, or the equivalent of 17 to 21 eight-hour workdays.

The requirement has been a headache for many teachers across North Carolina, who have taken on more responsibilities during the pandemic and have other professional development requirements, as well. Some teachers in the state have reported having to do their training on weekends.

Wake school leaders are estimating K-5 teachers and relevant administrators will need to do at least 48 hours of training during the next school year and more the year after that, potentially requiring more early release days that year, too. Teachers of other subjects, such as at middle and high schools, would use those extra hours from early release days to complete other professional development.

Board Member Karen Carter questioned doing early release days, arguing that parents could struggle to find childcare during those days.

Chairwoman Lindsay Mahaffey noted the school board had previously asked the district’s calendar committee not to consider doing early release days.

Superintendent Cathy Moore said the district can’t consider doing more teacher workdays without jeopardizing instruction time compliance. The district cannot start the school year earlier or end it later to fit in more days.

“And it’s a calendar law issue,” Moore said.

The General Assembly has long resisted allowing school systems to start earlier in August or end later in June.

“I think we need to keep raising our concerns,” Kushner said. “I’ve been advocating for calendar flexibility for 10 years. I’ve had legislators say to my face, ‘It makes no sense what we do’ and then seen those same legislators vote against it.”

The Wake County Public School System’s revision, presented Tuesday during the school board’s work session, nixes the five minutes added to the school day for at least most schools. The school system has 25 schools needs to form a plan for to ensure students receive the state-required minimum 1,025 instructional hours in the event the board approves the six early release days.

Year-round schools on Tracks 1, 2 and 3 would have a teacher workday — April 24 — added to their schedule.

All school calendars currently provide enough, or more than enough, hours to meet the state minimums.

Wake County Public School System rising 10th through 12th graders can apply for a summer “career accelerator” program, where they’d learn directly from area companies.

The accelerator program runs July 18-29 and will feature skills training and career preparation. Students would get “immersive experiences” into what working for those businesses is like. Additional workshops would focus on career pathways, job education requirements, interview skills, resume and LinkedIn profile building and other topics, according to WakeEd Partnership.

WakeEd Partnership plans to accept about 1,000 students from across the school district. All rising 10th through 12th graders are eligible but may have to travel to another school to participate. Nine of the district’s high schools will be hosts: Apex, Enloe, East Wake, Sanderson, Heritage, Fuquay Varina, South Garner, Cary and Panther Creek.

Companies that have agreed to work with students include Amazon, IBM, Wolfspeed, Deutsche Bank Global Technologies, Triangle ESports Academy, Alfred Williams, Gensler, Marbles Museum, Martin Marietta, TowneBank, UNC-Rex Hospital, John Deere and others.

The Wake County Public School System has signed two more contracts for “behind the wheel” driver’s education, as students across Wake County and North Carolina face longer-than-usual waiting lists for it.

The backlog, related to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting driver’s education offerings, was “months” prior to the district signing three new contracts since April 19.

The school district is trying to reduce the backlog to the six to eight weeks waiting period that existed prior to the pandemic.

Contracts above $100,000 must be approved by the board. District officials signed the other two contracts after they told the board last month they planned to sign two more.

The new contracts suggest the school district could provide training, after accounting for increases costs, to several hundred more students in the coming weeks.