July 10, 2024
For immediate release:
Dear Ocracoke Community,
I hope this letter finds you well. As you may be aware, the adoption of our school calendar in March has recently come under scrutiny due to compliance issues with North Carolina legislation. A group of community members have contacted a lawyer and threatened Hyde County Schools with litigation if it does not adjust to current legislation requiring the start of Ocracoke school to not begin before the Monday closest to August 26 and to end the Friday closest to June 11th (GS 115C-84.2). This legislation does not allow local communities the flexibility or right to choose their calendar and has long been challenged with bills being filed in the House and Senate. Hyde County Schools has been committed to finding solutions within the legislation but does not qualify for the exemptions due to our small size. This situation has prompted legal threats that we must address to preserve our limited state and county budgets.
First and foremost, I commend Ocracoke’s parents, students, staff, and community members involved in the process for their creativity, innovation, and willingness to advocate for positive change. Your efforts and engagement have demonstrated a deep commitment to our students and staff's well-being and success. The intention behind our early start calendar was to provide valuable wellness days to reach health resources, end the first semester before Christmas break, maintain a manageable school day length, offer clubs/work-based learning/and other options for application-based learning, and ensure that Hyde County students have the support they need to pursue college courses. These intentions directly align with our school's comprehensive needs assessments and the areas of challenge, including attendance rates, educational attainment rates, application-based learning, and academic excellence. Please see the updated calendar here: https://5il.co/2qyl3
We all tend to get busy, but Hyde County Schools works to communicate through our phone call/text service, Facebook, website posts, school meetings, and Board of Education meetings. Your active participation as a community member, parent, or student is crucial for our school’s success. Please ensure that you are a member of the Hyde County Schools and Ocracoke School Facebook Page, your contact information as a parent/guardian is updated in our school's information system, we even have an app that will send you information from our website. We communicate often through these means. Requests to join one or more of our school or district's committees are always needed and desired. Please let Ms. Jeanie know if you want to serve in one of the many roles that are available. We want to assure everyone that every decision made regarding the school calendar has been with the best interests of our students and staff at heart.
Despite the genuine intentions behind our adopted calendar, we received a demand letter from Attorney Mitch Armbruster stating, “Therefore, I demand that you immediately confirm that Ocracoke School will not open to students prior to August 26, 2024, and to amend your published calendar to reflect that fact.”
Consequently, the Board of Education voted on July 9th to comply with the legal demand to change the Ocracoke calendar to comply with the start date to avoid potential legal and financial repercussions that could detract from our strategic plan to ensure student success.
We understand that this change may be disappointing and will require adjustments on everyone's part. We are committed to working collaboratively with our community to make this transition as smooth as possible. The Hyde County School Board of Education adopted an Ocracoke School calendar that begins on August 26th for students. Our dedicated staff members have worked hard to align this calendar as much as possible with the one initially adopted and preferred by our community. This means that the student’s daily start time will be at 7:55 am and the end time will be at 3:15 pm Monday-Thursday, and student’s daily start time of 7:55 am and end time of 11:30 am Fridays. Although we are committed to ending the semester in Dec., the 1st semester will only consist of 70 days (including testing). Students that are registered for college courses on-site will still be expected to be at school on August 15th for their BCCC information highway courses. The calendar is updated on our website: https://5il.co/2qyl3
I appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this time. Together, we will continue to strive for excellence in education and support the needs of our students and staff.
Melanie R. Shaver