RCSS Board of Education voices displeasure with school calendar law

ASHEBORO – Frustrations have been growing around the state in regard to school calendar law and Randolph County is no exception.

At its February business meeting, the Randolph County Schools Board of Education was presented with the 2026-27 school calendar and many of the board members voiced their displeasure with the current law.

According to state law, traditional public schools are forbidden from starting earlier than the Monday nearest to Aug. 26.

What this then means is that districts are typically unable to finish the first semester before winter break meaning students have to come back to take exams after about two weeks off.

“The conservative value is local control and why is this any different?” said board member Todd Cutler. “I guarantee that the result would be that students will test better because of (an earlier start date). We go through almost a month from the time they get out of school until exams are finished and it’s just ridiculous.”

The board also argued that not only would the earlier start help with potential learning loss, but it would also allow them to better align with the local community college schedule.

“I don’t understand how we have all these public school systems in our state that have relationships and these programs with the local community colleges, yet we cannot operate on the same calendar,” Cutler said. “I just can’t grasp that.”

The argument for the law, which was enacted in 2004, was that an earlier start date for schools could potentially harm the tourism industry.

“It used to be that they would say ‘It’ll affect tourism,’ but there has never been a tourism study,” Cutler said. “That’s bull-S.”

The board discussed potential ways in which they could stay within the confines of the law, but still allow for the first semester to end before winter break, but the ideas weren’t ones that they felt the general populace would agree to.

“You could always offset your two semesters,” said superintendent Stephen Gainey, “but we put out a survey six or seven years ago and we had very little interest in that. The legislation doesn’t say when you have to change semesters so the only way you can do that is to make the fall semester shorter or you could add hours, but then you’re going to get into the after-school stuff.”

There have been multiple attempts at changing the law, even currently with House Bill 121 and Senate Bill 103, but most bills have stalled out in committee as they have been strongly opposed by Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger.

“It’s one person,” board chair Gary Cook said. “They’ll tell you, ‘If you want to break the law, we don’t have a problem with it,’ but the one person does and he holds a grudge if you break that law, I’ve heard, so it may bite you somewhere else.”

Following discussion, the board unanimously voted to still approve the proposed 2026-27 calendar which is aligned with state law.

The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet March 17.