NHCS holds town hall for year-round calendars
By Bryant Reed | May 19, 2020 at 10:36 PM EDT – Updated May 20 at 4:11 AM
NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) – The NHCS calendar committee, along with parents from Snipes Academy and Freeman Elementary, participated in a town hall about the upcoming school calendar Tuesday.
Year-round and Restart schools normally start in July, which is why parents and school board members discussed whether it will be safe to have students in class by then.
The proposed school calendar for Snipes Academy and Freeman Elementary will start several weeks later than usual on August 4th. It’s set to end June 10th of next year. That’s more like a traditional calendar school year than year-round.
Parents had questions during this town hall about safety, like whether social distancing will be observed and whether teachers and students would have to wear masks and face coverings.
“We shouldn’t have to choose between a calendar and the safety of our children,” said Michelle Hackman, PTA president of Codington Elementary. “We should be able to do what’s right and still be able to keep the year round status that we have. So that’s really frustrating and scary at times when you don’t want your child to go to school unless they’re prepared for that.”
Codington and Eaton Elementary Schools are also schools that will be up for a new calendar for the year. Those schools will have a town hall meeting Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
The committee plans to put the proposed calendars in front of the full school board at the June meeting.
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