CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Some Charlotte area students are back in the classroom in North and South Carolina school districts. Many schools have an early start date due to some special programs or waivers given by the state.
About 200 Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students at Central Piedmont Early College started school about three weeks earlier than the CMS schools with a traditional calendar.
It was the first day CMS has students in classrooms at the Uptown campus of Central Piedmont Community College.
"It’s the culmination of a lot of hard work from a lot of great partners," Erik Turner, Principal of Central Piedmont Early College said.
It’s an expansion of the district’s Early College program.
"It was designed to provide access for first-generation college students," Turner said. "Underrepresented minorities or students and families that want acceleration. And this program does exactly that."
Early colleges aren’t subject to the state’s ban on school districts coming back to school any earlier than the Monday closest to August 26.
They are also different in the type of activities they offer on campus due to sharing a college campus location during the school day.
"What we try to do is try to make this as much as like the traditional experience as possible. So we have student clubs, we have different leadership opportunities," Turner said.
Students can also participate in high school athletics at their home school.
Early college also allows students to simultaneously do three years of high school work and then two years of college studies at no cost.
"The students will be able to earn up to $25 to $30,000 a year because that's about the money it costs to go to a public college in North Carolina," Turner said, "If you go to a private school, that can be from $40 to $60,000 a year."
Central Piedmont Early College is also celebrating what’s being called a successful first day of express busing.
"We have 14 buses that serve approximately 24 Express stops. And of all 14 buses, we only have one that was late today," Turner said.
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About 5,000 students across CMS had their bus stops eliminated and now they must find their way to a centralized stop at a location up to 3 miles from their home.
There was a worry it would impact the diversity of magnet programs.
Making opportunities like early colleges less accessible.
Meanwhile, York School District One in South Carolina is also starting with a non-traditional calendar called a "modified balanced calendar."
"I am excited, it is amazing what's happening, the energy in the building is phenomenal. All the kids are happy, all the staff are happy, it's going to be a great year," April Aulmerm, York School District One director of elementary programs and gifted education, said.
A modified calendar means summer break is two weeks shorter, but those two weeks are not lost. Instead, teachers and students will have those weeks as breaks during October and February. Students struggling with work can use these weeks for learning recovery due to the pandemic.
"Reading is a big issue," Windy Sizemore, York School District One literacy coach, said. "And so we want our kids to be reading and to enjoy reading, not just reading to take a test but to read, to live, to be in the world, and to enjoy reading."
As students at the early college program in Uptown wrap up for the first day, an expansion is expected as early as next year.
"Next year we'll have full enrollment and we'll have a waiting list for our upcoming ninth grade the following year," Turner said.
When it comes to staffing, the school is starting off strong, only needing to fill one more teacher position to be at full instructional staff.
"Our teachers, that's where the magic happens in every classroom and those, that's where our students are really going to be inspired, excited, motivated by our teachers," Turner said.
But CMS, as a district, is not in such good shape.
As of June 28th, they needed to fill 494 teaching positions.
York School District One was interviewing a few weeks ago for the last five teaching positions open for the year.
"A lot of times our employees help us with recruiting, they're telling their friends, we're a wonderful place to work, come join us," Jennifer Bolin, York School District One director of human resources, said.
Contact Shamarria Morrison at smorrison@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.