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-Press Release, Granville County Public Schools

At their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, March 2, 2020, the Granville County Board of Education approved several changes to the district’s academic calendars.

First, the Board approved changes to the current 2019-20 calendars as a result of the recent “snow day” which caused school to be canceled for students and staff on Friday, February 21. For students, that day was essentially “forgiven” as the district already had a surplus of instructional hours beyond the minimum the state requires in order to comply with calendar law. For staff, the missed day will now be replaced with an Optional Workday added to the end of the calendar in June.

These revised calendars are now posted to our district websites and will be made available in our schools as hard copies.

Next, the Board decided to discontinue the “dual-calendar” programs which are currently offered at Butner Stem Elementary School, Butner Stem Middle School and West Oxford Elementary School. These three schools currently offer both a traditional and a year-round calendar as options for students as part of the choice program. Beginning with the 2020-2021 school year, these schools will operate on the single, district-wide calendar.

In making their decision, the Board reviewed data about the program which showed declining enrollment, a lack of interest from parent surveys, increasing cost, and no clear changes in overall academic achievement for children.

Finally, the Board approved a NEW district-wide academic calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. This calendar differs from the current traditional calendar in that all students will report to school two weeks earlier than normal, with their first day back to school being Monday, August 10, 2020. The calendar also provides a longer winter break, with opportunities for students to participate in an “intersession” in early January. This optional intersession will provide students with innovative opportunities for enrichment, exploration and remediation, as well as clubs and extracurricular activities.

The calendar offers spring break right before Easter and ends with the last day for students occurring on Friday, May 26, 2021. An additional three-week intersession period is also offered for students in the month of June.

The Board cited several student-friendly features of this new calendar design, including finishing the first semester before the winter break, closer alignment with VGCC course schedules, intersession programs, better alignment with athletic programs, and more flexibility for offering professional development to improve teacher effectiveness.

The new calendar, dubbed an “innovative year-round” calendar, provides additional flexibility for the district in start and end dates, which makes many of these new features possible. The Board reviewed survey data to help inform their decision, which showed that of 1082 respondents, an overwhelming majority (644) chose this new calendar option as their first choice. Additionally, more respondents (415) chose the current traditional calendar design as their least favorite choice.

Board Chairman David Richardson commented, “I am pleased we can offer this new innovative approach that puts children first. The Board has made increasing academic performance its top priority, and we need to make sure our efforts focus on ways to best support our students and staff in this regard. We recognize there will be some adjustments to this new design and will work with families to help make the transition as smooth as possible.”

All schools except Granville Early College High School (GECHS) will follow this new, innovative calendar for the 2020-2021 school year. GECHS will follow a separate calendar mirroring that of its partner, Vance-Granville Community College.

Both the new 2020-2021 district calendar and the 2020-2021 GECHS calendar are posted on the district website and available in hard copy at schools.