Are voting sites at schools a risk for students? Wake may make Election Day a workday.
Wake County school leaders are considering not holding classes on Election Day in response to parents who say it’s a safety risk when so many schools serve as polling sites.
The school system is currently scheduled to have classes on Nov. 8, when potentially more than 100,000 voters will enter schools to cast their ballots. Parents have been lobbying Wake to hold a teacher workday on Election Day so that students won’t be exposed to safety risks from so many strangers walking onto school campuses.
“While there are many risks that we can’t predict, we do have the ability to mitigate this one,” Kirstin Morrison, a Wake parent, said at Tuesday’s school board meeting. “We can align a teacher workday with Election Day so that our students can stay out of the buildings and safe with the extra visitors in those school buildings.”
Lisa Luten, a school district spokeswoman, said Wake is listening to the feedback to see if it has options. For instance, Morrison suggested moving the Nov. 4 teacher workday at traditional-calendar schools and the Oct. 10 or Oct. 24 workday at year-round schools to Nov. 8.
“We heard the feedback last night and have plans to discuss the feedback that parents provided,” Luten said in an email.
It’s not unprecedented for the school district to make last-minute changes to the calendar. In May, the school board modified the 2022-23 calendar to add six early release days per school to schedule in days for teachers to receive state-mandated training.
100,000 voters in schools?
More than 70 Wake County schools, mostly elementary schools, serve as polling sites.
Under state law, local elections boards can demand that any state, county or municipal building — such as a public school — be used as a polling site. Elections officials need permission to use churches and privately owned facilities for polling sites.
Gerry Cohen, a member of the Wake County Board of Elections, said public schools are chosen because often they’re the only suitable option in some precincts.
In 2018, Cohen said 76,760 people voted at Wake County schools during the general election.. He said three schools had more than 2,000 voters.
Cohen said the number of people voting at schools could surpass 100,000 voters this fall. He pointed to how much higher turnout was in last month’s primary election than in 2018 and how Wake could have 12% more registered voters than 2018.
This fall’s ballot will be a long one with U.S. Senate, Congressional, General Assembly, judicial, school board and municipal races. There will also be multiple bond issues on the ballot. Cohen said the lengthy ballot could result in voters spending longer than normal at polling sites.
“If you’re trying to shoehorn 100,000 people in 13 hours in 70 schools that’s a lot of people,” said Cohen, who said he was only speaking for himself.
Board of Elections wants teacher workday
Wake County typically schedules a teacher workday on Election Day in presidential election years. It’s not as common to hold teacher workdays on Election Day during mid-term elections and in odd-numbered yeas when only municipal races are on the ballot.
In February, the Wake County Board of Elections sent a letter asking the school district to schedule a teacher workday for the next two general elections. But elections officials particularly wanted a teacher workday for this fall.
“We anticipate a large turnout for this election,” Gary Sims, Wake County Board of Elections executive director, wrote in his letter to Superintendent Cathy Moore. “We truly understand and appreciate the challenges you must face while scheduling for such a large school system.
“While a two-hour delay would be beneficial, a scheduled teacher workday would be optimal.”
Cohen said the request is reasonable since several school districts, including Durham, Johnston and Chapel Hill-Carrboro, aren’t holding classes on Nov. 8.
Wake has typically cited the constraints of the state’s school calendar law for why it can’t always have a teacher workday on Election Day.
For instance, Luten said that moving a teacher workday to Nov. 8 would create a “choppy” week for parents and staff because schools are required under state law to not have classes on Nov. 11 for Veterans Day.
‘Alarming security risk’
Calls for not having classes on Election Day have risen following the latest round of mass shootings, including last month at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Morrison, the Wake parent, said 38,785 voters entered Wake schools during the May 17 primary. She called that “an alarming security risk” as she talked about how voters crossed paths with students inside her son’s elementary school as they were getting lunch in the cafeteria.
“It concerned me that day, and a week later as I watched what unfolded at Robb Elementary School it was a crushing worry,” Morrison continued. “So today’s world is unpredictable and we have no ability to be immune to such a tragedy unfolding in our own community.”
Morrison’s concerns were echoed by several other parents who submitted written comments to Tuesday’s school board meeting.
“With recent events, safety at school is a top concern for me as a parent with a child in WCPSS,” wrote Kimberly Hatch. “I understand the importance of the civic duty to vote and understand that our schools provide a space that can be used as a polling place, however I have concerns with the students being on campus for election days.
“Please make the upcoming election days teacher workdays and all future election days teacher workdays.”
Brittany Weathersbee wrote to the school board that she’s concerned how the space for voting and the classrooms are all connected under one building in many schools like her child’s.
“As a parent of a WCPSS child I would feel much safer if on Election Days schools closed or were used as Teacher Work Days,” Weathersbee wrote. “I encourage everyone to get out and vote in the elections.
“I do however feel it is a big safety concern letting so many extra people onto school campus with students, when the security can’t be what it is every other day (main doors locked/buzzed in/ photo IDs verified to be allowed to enter the building).”
