New calendar for CMS means remote learning during RNC, exams done before winter break
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students won’t have in-person classes during the Republican National Convention, instead using remote learning that week in an attempt to avoid traffic and other logistical challenges.
Originally, CMS planned to avoid overlapping with the convention by starting school on Aug. 31. But the COVID-19 pandemic led the state legislature to pass a bill requiring all schools to start on Aug. 17, with additional days of instruction intended to make up for progress lost as a result of the school closures this spring.
The new calendar for the 2020-21 school year, approved by the board Tuesday, was designed to satisfy those state mandates for instructional time while keeping school buses and students off the roads during the convention. Classes will begin on Aug. 17, and remote learning will be used for the week of Aug. 24 to Aug. 28.
“This is one of those big abrupt changes brought to us by coronavirus and mandated by the state,” board chair Elyse Dashew said. “There’s been a lot in the news about whether they will be or whether they won’t be here, but we have to be prepared and have our kids learning from home.”
The RNC is scheduled to take place at the Spectrum Center from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27. But on Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to pull the convention out of Charlotte in a series of tweets, accusing Gov. Roy Cooper of being in “Shutdown mood.”
Tuesday, Trump told reporters at the White House that he needs a decision about whether the convention will go forward “within a week,” The Observer reported.
Earlier in the day, Cooper said state health officials have asked RNC organizers to provide written plans about health and COVID-19 safety guidelines at the convention.
“It’s OK for political conventions to be political but pandemic response cannot be,” Cooper said. “We’d like to reach a resolution that everybody can be reasonable about.”
Cooper and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles have continued to say that data and science will guide their decision about the RNC.
The earlier start to school also gives CMS one of its long-standing asks of the legislature — starting classes early enough to avoid students taking their final exams after winter break — even if just for this year.
“The amended calendar for next school year has several aspects that will be good for students and families,” Dashew said. “We’ll have first-semester exams before the winter break and school finished by Memorial Day.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 8:45 PM.