Saying it already has enough instructional minutes in the schedule, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board voted Tuesday night to seek a waiver from a new state rule that extends the school year by five days.

CMS said it will seek the waiver only for the 2011-12 school year and will add the five extra days into the school calendar for 2012-13.

The school board said it will use the extra five days in 2011-12 for teacher training and development.

Near the end of its recent legislative session, the N.C. General Assembly passed a law that requires students to have 185 classroom days, five more than currently scheduled. And school systems must fit the five extra days into the calendar's current confines - that is, no school days before Aug. 25 and none after June 10.

The new law advises school systems to convert five teacher workdays into classroom days.

But at Tuesday night's meeting, the school board said CMS has added 45 minutes to the elementary school day in 2011-12 and already has enough instructional hours in the calendar to meet the new state law.

"We want to use the days for teacher training for two reasons," said outgoing Superintendent Peter Gorman. "First, it will help our teachers be more effective in the classroom and provide support for instruction and the new common core standards.

"Secondly, we want our families to have the opportunity to participate in changing the calendar for 2012-13."

CMS establishes its academic calendar two years in advance.

Gorman said CMS wants to give staff members and parents some time to help plan the academic calendar.

"Although we're delighted to have the additional instructional time, we would still like to have some flexibility in setting the calendar that was not provided in this bill," he said.