And you thought Mecklenburg has all the school drama.
Judge Howard Manning has stopped Wake County’s plan to convert 22 schools to a year-round calendar. Manning said the year-round schools had to be voluntarily chosen by parents, not forced on them.
This has important implications for Mecklenburg and other fast-growing counties looking at the year-round option, even if in the distant future. Manning is saying that school systems do not have the authority to mandate year-round schools. As a practical matter, it is unclear how effective a voluntary scheme might help reduce over-crowding. This decision by Manning may remove the year-round option from the crowding-fix tool-kit completely.
Also, do not forget the implications for the CMS $620 million school bond. That number was absolutely influenced by the passage of the $970 million bond in Wake County in November. Yet the Wake bond carried with it a subtext of, “Vote for the bond, or you’ll get stuck with year-round schools.”
The school district quickly backed away from that implied linkage once the bond was passed, leading to widespread outrage in the community. For CMS the important thing to remember is that it will not be possible to play the spooky, year-round school card this fall.
Mandatory, year-round public schools are off the table.
