With a rally expecting to draw thousands of educators from across the Piedmont next week, some area school districts are canceling classes for students based on teacher absence requests.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, Orange County Schools and Chatham County Schools each made updates to their respective calendars in the last week ahead of an expected rally on Friday, May 1 in Raleigh. The North Carolina Association of Educators is organizing a demonstration, titled as the “Kids Over Corporations Rally,” which is expected to draw thousands of North Carolina educators and supporters in the latest large-scale push to advocate for more state funding for public schools.
CHCCS alerted its families on Thursday, April 16 that it would convert May 1 from a normal day of instruction to a teacher workday with no class. Because of banked time from its normal school days and lack of other cancellations so far in the academic year, the district said it would not need to make up any instructional hours from the change.
“CHCCS has already received a larger than usual number of staff absence requests for this day, which we believe to be related to the event,” read the alert, which came after the district’s Board of Education meeting where the calendar update was formally approved. “We believe the staff absence requests will continue to rise. As a result, we do not believe that we can hold a safe and productive day of learning, and our preference is to communicate this change with as much advance notice as possible.”
Orange County Schools and Chatham County Schools similarly updated their own calendars during recent school board meetings, but their respective schedules required the change to be made up elsewhere in the calendar. Orange County Schools — whose year-round schools already had a teacher workday scheduled for May 1 — will hold classes on Thursday, Jun. 11 for its high school students only, since the other grades have enough banked hours. Chatham County Schools, meanwhile, converted Friday, May 22 into a regular instructional day for all students.
As of Wednesday evening, joining those districts in shifting May 1 to a teacher workday are Durham Public Schools, Guilford County Schools, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and Asheville City Schools.
The “Kids Over Corporations Rally” comes as the North Carolina General Assembly enters a short session locked in a budget stalemate lasting nearly a full year. Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and Senate have not come to terms on a budget between their chambers, leaving schools funded at an old rate — as North Carolina already sits 50th in the U.S. in cost-adjusted revenue per pupil, according to the national nonprofit Education Law Center. Between the lack of a new budget, increased state funding for Opportunity Vouchers for private school students, and the state Supreme Court’s recent ruling overturning the Leandro case on education funding, the North Carolina Association of Educators says it wants legislators to hear teachers’ discontent.
“This is our line in the sand,” Tamika Walker Kelly, the NCAE president, said in a release announcing the rally. “We will not back down when it comes to ensuring our children receive the education they need and deserve. We will not back down in demanding qualified educators in every classroom and safe, well-resourced schools for every student. Our lawmakers have shown time and again that the resources exist — they have simply chosen not to invest them in our children. If they will not act, we will. And that starts with making our voices heard on May 1.”
The last time the NCAE organized a teachers rally in Raleigh was 2019, with teachers and public school supporters gathering on the Halifax Mall to advocate for similar changes as they will this year. The educators association’s primary requests of legislators are to “put kids first” by investing at least $20,000 per student by 2030 (compared to the state’s current $12,995) and better retaining educators by raising pay for all school employees while adding health professionals. Other demands include ending corporate tax breaks that limit the amount of money available to allocate for schools, eliminating the private school voucher program, and lifting the ban on collective bargaining for public school workers.
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CHCCS, Orange and Chatham Public Schools Among NC Districts Canceling Classes Ahead of Teachers Rally Chapelboro.com.
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