School day to be longer in Wilkes

Like so many students heading back to school, Ashley Rankin says she can't believe how short the summer seemed.

But Ashley, a 16-year-old rising senior at West Wilkes High School, along with 10,000 fellow Wilkes County Schools students who will start back to school today, will have a shorter school year than any of the other more than 1.4 million public-school students in North Carolina.

Wilkes County Schools is trying a pilot program that allows the system to have school for 162 days instead of 180 days by making the school days longer. In Wilkes, school will start 15 minutes earlier in the mornings and last 30 minutes longer in the afternoon.

For most students, that means classes will start about 7:45 a.m. (It will vary a bit at some schools.) Buses will continue to run on their usual morning schedules, officials say, because the routes were already set up to get students to school that early.

Educational leaders across the state will be watching the program to see if it offers what supporters hope: education that's just as good as it has been, if not better, while reducing costs and saving jobs.

But powerful voices such as Bill Harrison, the chairman of the N.C. Board of Education, say it's a bad idea both practically and symbolically to cut the number of school days in the year.

"I have real concerns about it," Harrison said. "I think it has potential to be a huge step backwards for public education in the state of North Carolina."

He added, "I suspect the kids are happy. I wonder about the parents who are going to have to pay for 18 more days of day care."

Ashley, who has attended Wilkes County Schools since kindergarten, said she won't really know how she will like the change until school starts, but has a favorable outlook.

"If it's only going to tack on 10, 15 minutes to every one of my classes and I get out 18 days earlier, then in a teenager's perspective, I would much rather have that," she said.

Rebecca Spears, a second-grade teacher at Wilkesboro Elementary and the system's Teacher of the Year, said she has wondered if the younger children have the stamina to make it through a longer day.

But she also says that elementary school isn't like people may remember it, with children stuck in one hard desk seat all day.

"Elementary school is a very active place," she said. "There's more movement, more interaction, but productive work. I'm optimistic we can use those 45 minutes for that."

Steve Laws, the superintendent of Wilkes County Schools, says that students will actually be getting 10 more instructional hours than last year, with 1,040 hours of school in those 162 days.

State law requires school systems to offer 180 days and at least 1,000 hours of instruction. But an amendment tacked onto the state budget that was passed less than three weeks ago sticks an "or" into the language for Wilkes County, requiring the system to have a minimum of 180 days or 1,000 hours of instruction.

The change requires the state board of education to report to a legislative oversight committee by March 15, 2010, on how the pilot program went, how much money it saved and how it affected student achievement.

Laws says the change will save the system about $900,000, in reduced salaries for teacher assistants, and in savings from cafeteria operations, transportation costs and energy.

Last May, when things looked bleakest for state budget cuts, he said they thought that the system would lose 48 teacher assistants this year. School administrators started thinking of ways to save money.

The cuts from Raleigh weren't quite as deep as they thought they would be, and the savings from the new calendar mean that no school employees lost their jobs. Teacher assistants will work, and get paid for, 90 percent of what they would get in a regular year.

But the bottom line is that without the calendar change, Laws said, 30 teacher assistants who are starting work today would have been without a job. The list of employees had already been made.

Although the system is losing 18 teacher positions, there was enough usual attrition that no teachers lost their jobs. Teacher pay won't be affected by the shorter school year.

"It's certainly a disservice if we're saving money and not keeping our instructional program at least as good as it has been, and we intend for it to be better," Laws said. "We are the pilot. If we do what I know we can do, I think there'll be others interested in doing it next year."

State education officials were surprised by the legislation. Harrison said it slipped through at the 11th hour.

Laws said he went to the legislature, rather than state education officials, because the change required legislative approval.

Harrison said he knows that times are tough, but that 114 other school districts in North Carolina aren't cutting their school days. He worries about schoolchildren competing in a global environment where students from other nations go to school more hours and more days, and have higher standardized test scores than American students.

He doesn't think that the longer days will be as productive and that going fewer days sends the wrong message.

"Even symbolically I think it's bad," he said.

Laws said there's nothing sacred about 180 days, and the true measure will be what is taught and learned. He agrees that he would like to see students go to school for more than 180 days, but says the money isn't there to do that now, and likely won't be for years to come.

Meanwhile, he says, inventive alternatives can work to save money and improve education.

"I intend when the economy gets better we add more days," Laws said. "It's good to go to school."

■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.