DATE: Wednesday, February 26, 1997          TAG: 9702260456

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 

SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY                    LENGTH:   91 lines

ELIZABETH CITY'S 1998-'99 CLASSES MAY BE MOVED TO MID-AUGUST

Classes in the 1998-99 school year may start earlier in the summer for Elizabeth City-Pasquotank students.

The Board of Education is considering moving opening day up by more than a week, to around Aug. 10, in 1998.

The earlier opening originally was considered for this summer, but on Monday night board members agreed that parents needed more notice.

The following 1998-99 school year, however, students could come to school eight or nine days earlier than usual. And they'll be released in May instead of June.

High school athletics and other fall extracurricular activities, such as band, would still start around Aug. 1. State guidelines prohibit sports practices any earlier in the summer.

Teachers also would report to work the first Monday in August.

THE EARLY OPENING plan apparently is favored by city schools. Seven of the district's 10 schools voted last week in favor of the early opening. Weeksville, Northside and P.W. Moore elementary schools were against it. Both Weeksville and Northside are in rural areas.

However, the total of individual staff votes shows an almost even split between the traditional and newer options, said Superintendent Joseph Peel.

The main reason to consider a switch is instructional, Peel said at Monday's regular school board meeting.

With the current calendar, high school students do not take fall semester final exams until after the winter holidays. Under a revised schedule, students would finish before the break.

``That's the main thing that will be driving it,'' Peel told the six-member board.

Teachers also would receive half of their supplemental pay prior to Christmas, rather than after, Peel noted.

School board member Mark Small wondered whether it would be as difficult for teen-agers to study before the holidays.

``Is it also not hard to take exams with the hubbub leading up to Christmas?'' he asked.

Nita Coleman questioned the difficulty parents of younger students might have with child care since the winter break would be longer. ``I think that a 2 1/2-week break at Christmas is mighty long,'' she said.

Coleman, a pediatrician, also raised the issue of the summer heat during early August.

``One of my concerns is about the gyms being unair-conditioned and being hot,'' she said.

PEEL SAID EARLY starting dates are catching on in North Carolina.

``There are a lot of districts that have gone to this calendar,'' he said.

The closest is Edenton-Chowan schools, which began this school year on Aug. 7, about three weeks earlier than in the past.

``We like it. I think people generally feel good about it,'' said Edenton-Chowan Schools Superintendent John Dunn on Tuesday.

The superintendent cited an earlier fall semester finish for the change this year. The Edenton-Chowan school board also gave a year's notice.

Another advantage, Dunn noted, is having a school calendar that is more in line with colleges. This allows a senior who completes graduation requirements in December to begin college earlier.

By enrolling in January and continuing through the summer, a student could already be a sophomore by the time most of his or her peers are just becoming freshmen, he said.

``So in some cases students get a semester, or even a whole year, head start in beginning college. And we've had a number do that,'' Dunn said.

Five years ago the Edenton-Chowan school system began an optional year-round program that this year attracted 600 of the schools' 2,600 students.

CURRITUCK COUNTY ALSO has moved up its starting date during the past couple of years. Traditionally, doors opened to students after Labor Day; this year it was Aug. 19.

Peel said Camden County also is considering an earlier calendar.

In the Albemarle school system, the least likely to adopt an earlier schedule is tourism-based Dare County, with an economy that relies heavily on high-school labor after college students return to school.

Public schools nationwide have long been centered around agrarian cycles to enable children to help on home farms.

Although agriculture is still a major industry in places such as Pasquotank County, organizing school around harvest cycles is unnecessary in today's world, according to at least one school board member.

``I think you have to be realistic. The percentage of people affected by agrarian cycles - even in this area - is much smaller than 10 or 20 years ago,'' said Matt Wood.

Chowan County also is agricultural, but Dunn said the new school cycle has not interfered with farm life.

``There are not that many children who work on the farms now that this would interfere with,'' he said. ``As a matter of fact, a lot of the harvesting of peanuts and cotton, in our area anyway, is done in the fall when school already was in session.''

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