Johnston County cancels Thanksgiving week classes to let students, staff ‘recharge’
Johnston County will give students three more days off in November, including all of Thanksgiving week, to give families and school employees time to “decompress.”
The Johnston County school board voted unanimously Wednesday to cancel classes on Nov. 12, Nov. 22 and Nov. 23 after citing issues such as how teachers are under pressure to cover classes due to staff shortages. Johnston becomes the latest in a growing number of school districts in the Triangle and statewide to add “wellness days” to give families and employees a breather.
“Tensions are high,” said school board member Kay Carroll. “Nerves are frayed. People are fatigued.
“We’ve seen a lot has been going on with short tempers, and I think it would be a good idea for us to give everybody some down time.”
Under North Carolina law, public schools must be closed on Veterans Day, which is Thursday, Nov. 11. Nov. 12 is a Friday so families will have a four-day weekend now.
During Thanksgiving week, no classes were scheduled for Nov. 24-26. The calendar change means school will not be held on Nov. 22, a Monday, and Nov. 23, a Tuesday.
Johnston County is the state’s seventh-largest school district, with more than 37,000 students.
The calendar change will require three more optional teacher workdays to be added to replace the instructional days. Board members asked staff to draw up plans to make sure that hourly employees such as bus drivers and cafeteria workers can work to get paid on the workdays.
“We want to make sure that everybody understands that we want to make sure that they get paid and they relax and take care of themselves those days,” said board chairman Todd Sutton.
School districts add wellness days
Johnston, like other school districts in the state and nationally, is facing major staffing shortages for positions such as teachers, teacher assistants, bus drivers and cafeteria workers. It’s forcing the remaining staff to put in extra work to cover for the vacant positions.
Additionally, school leaders say families and employees are still dealing with the ongoing stress of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Everyone is just working so hard during this time,” said Brian Vetrano, Johnston County’s chief of human resources. “We’re seeing in our school system, and also other school systems, that it’s just very difficult.”
Johnston took parts of the approaches used by some other districts.
Wake County and Chatham County canceled classes on Nov. 12 to turn it into a “day of reflection” for students and staff.
The Wake County school system is also offering free stress management and wellness sessions that “are open to anyone who is interested in learning wellness skills to better support children and families..” Go to https://bit.ly/3Cku9Bf for more information, including how to sign up.
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro district changed its calendar to give students all of Thanksgiving week off, The News & Observer previously reported. The district also added two wellness days that week for staff.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system canceled classes on Nov. 1 and turned it into a teacher workday due to the staffing shortage, The Charlotte Observer reported. Tuesday is already a teacher workday so this will give CMS students a four-day weekend.
Giving people a chance to ‘decompress’
The proposal Wednesday from Johnston County school administrators was to cancel classes on Nov. 12 or on Nov. 22-23. Vetrano said principals supported using either option. But he said there was more support for the Thanksgiving week plan because attendance is usually down then with families traveling.
But board members said they wanted to use all three days to give people time off to recharge.
“I just want to give our people — students and staff — an opportunity to decompress and to calm down,” Carroll said. “Hopefully everybody comes back with renewed energy and positive attitudes.”
One concern that was raised was that it will mean less time for high school students before their fall semester exams start Dec. 13.
State law requires traditional-calendar schools to begin no sooner than late August. To get high school final exams in before winter break, the district has significantly fewer days in the fall semester than the spring semester.
“I’m really concerned about our high schools and the courses in first semester when we take three additional instructional days away from high school teachers,” said board member Lyn Andrews.
But Sutton, the board chairman, said the break in November will give students a chance to “recharge.”
Under the revised calendar, Nov. 12 and Nov. 23 will become wellness days so schools will be closed for students and staff. The district will make Nov. 22 an optional teacher workday so schools will be closed for students.
Optional teacher workdays are being added June 9 and June 10 for traditional-calendar schools and May 25 and May 26 for the Early College and Career and Technical Leadership Academy. The workdays are being added to fulfill the 215-day work requirement for teachers under state law.
This story was originally published October 27, 2021 at 3:48 PM.
