CMS to try out early-release days next year

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will try out four early-release days next year as a way to give teachers more time to develop their skills.

The school board approved the tweak to next year's calendar at the same as they allowed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to become a holiday.

Other districts, including Wake County, have incorporated early-release days into their calendars for years.

The scheduling is still being worked out, but most schools would let out about two hours early. There will be one per quarter. Next year's early release dates will be Oct. 7, Jan. 20, March 1 and April 20.

Superintendent Ann Clark said the time would be used for professional development for teachers.

CMS to tweak next year's academic calendar

Good news, teachers: You're now likely going to have the day before Thanksgiving off of work. But you'll also have to report for duty a day earlier in the fall.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is planning to ask the school board at next week's meeting to approve a few changes to the academic calendar for the 2015-16 school year. It took me a few moments to figure out the changes, but here they are in a nutshell:

• Wednesday, Nov. 25 (the day before Thanksgiving) goes from a teacher workday to a holiday.

• Monday, Aug. 17 becomes a teacher workday. It previously hadn't been on the calendar. That Tuesday through Friday has been workdays before the start of school Monday, Aug. 24.

• June 13, 2016 comes off the calendar. It had been a teacher workday. The last day of school is June 9.

Take a look at the calendar first approved in May here. Here's the proposed revised calendar.

Forecast for magnet busing

At the risk of making myself look foolish, I'm going to hazard a prediction about Tuesday's school board meeting: Magnet families will be spared further cutbacks in busing for 2011-12, but they still won't be able to breathe easy.

Superintendent Peter Gorman did not recommend magnet-busing cuts as part of his $100 million plan, but he has urged any board members who want to go that route to put their plan up for a vote next week, before the magnet application period ends Feb. 7.

What I'm hearing from board members this week is that there's no such proposal with enough votes to pass (remember that things could change by the time they bang the gavel). It's not clear whether anyone will roll something out for a vote. Rhonda Lennon, who's been the most vocal about cutting back on the cost of magnet busing, says she'd like to find a way to do that short of eliminating all transportation to magnets, but can't figure out how.

"I don't have a solution," she said Thursday. "I think it's just too complicated to figure out in this short a time."

But if magnet busing gets a pass for 2011-12, Lennon says she will be "leading the charge for a wholesale magnet review," starting right after this year's budget talks are over.

Another twist to look for Tuesday: Joe White will be absent, based on vacation plans made long before anyone knew there would be a big budget vote in January. That creates potential for 4-4 deadlocks on proposed cuts to Bright Beginnings, weighted student staffing and new bell schedules. It still takes five votes for any proposal to pass (and Gorman does not have tie-breaking power).

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Other odds and ends:

Apologies to anyone who was hoping to participate in last week's live Q&A. I was mentally gearing up that morning when my mom called to say my dad had fallen and broken his hip. He's doing great, and back at the Observer we're still trying to figure out the best ways to answer all the questions that are flying. CMS has answered several queries we've gotten from readers, and more are in the hopper.

Raleigh's school-board controversies are generating national attention -- and chuckles. The N.C. Public School Forum's Friday Report has a good synopsis that includes a link to the Colbert Report clip. I've been hearing about it for days and am eager to get home and watch (my work computer isn't good with video).

Finally, the MLK Day controversy has created a lot of buzz about what's normally the world's dullest topic: N.C. school calendar law. Here's a link to the law. CMS officials would love to get some of those restrictions lifted. If you're interested in weighing in, there's a link to the Web page with legislator contact information at the right of this blog.