COVID-19 pandemic will change the calendar for thousands of Wake year-round students
The Wake County school system is changing all year-round schools to a traditional calendar through at least mid-May while schools switch to using remote learning.
Wake notified families on Wednesday that they’re temporarily suspending the use of the year-round calendar, in which students get periodic short breaks during the school year. This means thousands of students at year-round schools will now have classes each weekday through at least May 15 with their upcoming breaks shortened or eliminated.
The change will go into effect beginning April 13. It’s a major change since Wake has so many year-round students that they alone would make up the 15th or 16th largest school system in North Carolina, according to Superintendent Cathy Moore.
“We are making this change in an effort to keep as many students as possible engaged in learning while schools are closed and the travel outside the home is limited based on the governor’s ‘Stay at Home’ directive,” Wake said online.
All North Carolina public schools will remain closed through at least May 15 to try to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. It’s forced school districts to come up with a plan to continue educating students through distance learning.
Year-round students will start remote learning April 13
Wake has provided review material for students to use. But teaching will begin April 6 at modified-calendar schools and early college high schools. It will start April 13 for both year-round and traditional-calendar schools.
Some Wake year-round schools operate on a multi-track calendar in which three groups of students are in class at all times and one is on break. Normally those schools wouldn’t have enough space on campus if all the students came in at once.
But the move to virtual learning avoids that space problem.
In the short term, students on track 4 will return to school on April 13 instead of on April 23 as originally scheduled.
If schools remain closed through the end of the school year, Wake says track 1 will end on June 4 and tracks 2, 3 and 4 will end June 11.
But if schools reopen, Wake said it will readjust the calendars at the year-round schools so that “staff and students are engaged in teaching and learning for essentially the same amount of time as traditional calendar students.”
In addition to the year-round schools, Fox Road Elementary School will also change to a traditional calendar beginning April 13. Both Barwell and Walnut Creek elementary schools will switch to a track 4 year-round calendar on April 13.
This story was originally published April 1, 2020 at 4:50 PM.
