CHARLOTTE — The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board will hold an emergency virtual meeting on Wednesday to discuss and vote on potential changes to the current academic calendar.
The board aims to reclaim instructional time lost during recent winter storms.
Chairwoman Stephanie Sneed confirmed that the district still has snow days available, but members are considering shifting existing early release days into full school days.
This proposal follows a series of weather-related disruptions, including closures and delays, that have impacted in-person learning over the past week and a half.
Winter weather has forced the district to fully close three times this year. Additionally, three days were transitioned to remote asynchronous learning, which means students completed assignments provided by teachers in advance without live instruction. Schools also operated on a two-hour delay for two days of in-person classes.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board Vice Chair Dee Rankin said the district considers several factors when deciding whether to keep students home.
Beyond road conditions, officials must evaluate the state of school property. “When roads may seem safe, but we have to make sure our campuses are clear and all our entryways are clear,” Rankin said.
Rankin noted that the primary goal of any calendar shift is to prevent educational setbacks.
“We want to make sure that our students don’t have any learning loss,” Rankin said. “We just want to adjust our calendar some so that kids can make up some of those days or hours that they lost in the classroom.”
State law requires the district to accrue 1,025 instructional hours during the school year. While the district still has snow days available, Rankin explained the board wants to prioritize classroom time.
“We’re not out of any days; it’s not because we have to have more instructional hours,” Rankin said.
The board is specifically looking at modifying existing short days to provide more instructional time.
“We’re looking into some of our early release days and changing those to just full days,” Rankin said.
District officials clarified there is currently no discussion about changing the dates for spring break or the final day of the school year.
Rankin emphasized that the quality of instruction is a high priority after student safety. He expressed confidence in the ability of district educators to help students catch up.
“I know our staff is gonna do a great job of catching our kids back up and making sure they have what they need,” Rankin said.
The school board is scheduled to hold the emergency meeting virtually on Wednesday to discuss and vote on the proposed calendar adjustments.
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