The Pender County Board of Education has begrudgingly decided to comply with state law on school calendars nearly a year after approving a noncompliant 2026-2027 schedule. (Port City Daily photo)

WILMINGTON — The Pender County Board of Education has begrudgingly decided to comply with state law on school calendars nearly a year after approving a noncompliant 2026-2027 schedule. 

The newly approved calendar will begin on Aug. 24, 2026, with the final day of school scheduled for June 2, 2027; this is a shift from the prior approval of an Aug. 10 start day and May 21 completion, unanimously approved by the school board in March 2025.

READ MORE: PC Schools sets 2026-2027 calendar that would break state law

As lobbied for by businesses in the summer tourism industry, state law mandates school start on the Monday closest to Aug. 25. This results in the loss or gain of a week depending on where Aug. 25 falls that year. 

However, a quarter of the state’s school districts did not comply with the law in 2024-2025, many choosing to enact a schedule with balanced semesters and often high school exams occurring before Christmas break. Union and Carteret counties school districts faced lawsuits as a result.

According to the Pender County school board, it has received a lot of complaints about the calendar from parents and community members recently. Chair Don Hall said he received about 110 emails from concerned parents about the start datesin August. 

“I think people realized, ‘Oh my god, we’re starting school so early,’” Hall told Port City Daily.

Tammy Proctor, executive director of the Greater Topsail Area Chamber of Commerce, also warned the board of the calendar’s consequences at its meeting on Feb. 5. 

“Our businesses are 95% mom and pops — they need those students,” Proctor said, referring to student employees who work during the summer. “We’ve all been in restaurants where there’s a whole section not being waited on because there isn’t an employee there.” 

Proctor said she didn’t intend to bully the district into voting differently, but wanted to “state the facts.” The tourism industry brings in $200 million in visitor spending and is responsible for 1,000 jobs in the county.

“I know you’re in a rock and a hard place, I know you have deadlines with testing and things like that, but I think as a business community and as a school district, we can be partners on this,” Proctor said. 

Not all board members thought a compromise should be made, however. 

“I’m disgusted by the whole thing,” board member Tom Reeves said in Tuesday’s meeting. “I just can’t believe that two weeks in August would make that much difference for a kid working, scooping ice cream, or a job in restaurants. I just think a child’s education is more important than that.” 

He said he’s learned from high school teachers that balanced semesters – meaning about the same amount of school days in the fall and spring — are crucial for being able to ensure students receive the same lessons.

Board member Beth Burns said the conversation has come up many times, and the board voted against a calendar two years ago that would’ve broken the law. While she did vote in favor of the law-breaking schedule last year, she said this time around she would have to side with the state. 

“I believe that if we were going to break the law, this would be the one that we probably should break, but it still doesn’t justify breaking a law to me,” she said.

Burns said she would support pushing state legislators to change the mandate instead. Some lawmakers — including Sen. Michael Lee of New Hanover County — introduced legislation last year to allow districts to start one week earlier, but the bill also would have punished districts that defied the law. It passed the Senate 39-7 but didn’t make it to the House floor.

But for now, the Pender school board members were given five options to pick from, all compliant with the law.

The draft chosen was the fifth option, which has 79 days in the first semester and 95 in the second. First-semester exams would be taken in December versus January; as a result, the draft includes the least amount of workdays among the options (11 versus 12 or 13) and less “banked,” or cushion, days built in (8.5 versus 13 or 14) — and, due to the imbalance, first semester students would have 16 less days of learning than second semester kids. The calendar will align with Cape Fear Community College’s spring break, important for dual-enrolled students.

“I feel like option five is closest to what we currently have,” board member Jennifer Hansen said. 

The switch to the draft five calendar was adopted unanimously. PCS staff will post the new calendar to the website soon.

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