Craven school system to operate on three schedules again next year

For the fourth straight year, the Craven County school system will operate on three calendars in 2009-10. The Board of Education unanimously approved the schedules Thursday night.

Students at Arthur W. Edwards and Havelock elementaries and Tucker Creek Middle, all in Havelock, will begin year-round school in mid-July. Craven Early College students will go back to school in early August, and all other students will use the regular calendar and return to class in late August. Exact dates were not available Thursday.

Before the meeting, Chairman Carr Ipock said the state sets mandatory dates for when systems can and cannot begin and end school years.

"The control you have over your calendar is whether you take your Easter week before or after Easter," Ipock said. "There's very little other flexibility."

In one vote, five board members approved all three calendars. Frances Boomer and Joseph Walton were absent. In recent years, the board has voted for each calendar separately as a way for members to show disapproval of a specific schedule.

Last year, the board needed two votes at separate meetings to approve the system's year-round calendar. The first vote ended in a 3-3 tie, with Linda Thomas absent.

The second vote ended in unanimous year-round calendar approval. The board decided to survey parents to decide whether or not to put the system on one calendar.

System officials decided several weeks ago to delay those surveys because of a lawsuit involving year-round schools in Wake County.

Ipock said Craven County school officials will not look to change schedules until the state Supreme Court rules on whether a system has the authority to require students to attend a year-round school.

In other business at Thursday's meeting, David Clifton suggested ways the system can meet budget cuts the state ordered this week. To help the state deal with a shortfall, the Craven County schools system must return about $575,000 of the money it received this year.

Clifton, the assistant superintendent for finance and facilities, suggested the system use other parts of its budget to pay for exceptional children's program teachers and guidance teachers who are now paid by the state. He also suggested the system eliminate one career and technical education position.

"I have to look where we can absorb the cuts without taking jobs," Clifton said. "But what I hope to also do is reduce the amount by which we'll have to eliminate supplies. There's not anything magical we can do here, because it just has to come from somewhere."