Overlooked part of COVID-19 bill moves up CMS reopening — in conflict with the RNC
Public school systems in Mecklenburg and two neighboring counties had planned to start fall classes on Aug. 31, a week after the Republican National Convention and its expected traffic disruptions.
But two lines in a 70-page law, passed by the legislature last week and signed by Cooper Monday, moved the start to Aug. 17 — a week before the convention.
On Monday, the author of that provision acknowledged it was an oversight.
“I should have thought about it, it never occurred to me,” Rep. Craig Horn, a Union County Republican who chairs two House education committees, said Monday. “My fault.”
The school provision was part of the sweeping, $1.57 billion COVID-19 Recovery Act ratified Saturday. The law adds millions in funding for education, health care, small business loans, food banks, medical research and coronavirus testing.
Horn said lawmakers could fix the start-date issue this spring. Or they could leave it to the state board of education.
“We did not feel that was an issue that had to be addressed last week,” he said.
School officials in Mecklenburg, Union and Cabarrus counties believed the convention, which is expected to bring as many as 50,000 people to Charlotte, would further congest streets. They planned to start schools at the end of August.
Horn said school superintendents in Cabarrus and Union counties already have called him about the change. Charles Jeter, government relations coordinator for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, said leaders are meeting about the issue on Monday.
“It’s something we’ll have to address,” Jeter said.
Asked why lawmakers had included the earlier date, Horn said that with students out of school because of the coronavirus, there’s a lot of ground to be made up.
“First of all kids have been out of school since early March so we’ve got almost two million kids who’ve missed a hell of a lot of school,” he said. “So we need to get our kids back in school as early as possible.”
He said there’s also a provision to “jump start” school even earlier in August for students who need the extra work. He said that would impact about 20% of North Carolina’s more than 1.5 million public school students.
Horn said there are options for the three counties.
“Perhaps they’ll start a week early or start the 17th and do digital that week,” he said.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 1:59 PM.
