Stokes County School board torn between early, late school start

(By Leslie Bray, The Stokes News) - Beating the heat or racing to finish exams before holiday break? These are the two options keeping school board members up at night.

At their regular monthly meeting on Jan. 23, the Stokes County Board of Education voted to table the approval of the 2012-13 and 2013-14 student calendars. Board member Becky Boles made the motion to table because she said that some new information had been brought to light that she had not thought of previously. Board member David Smith seconded the motion, and the vote was unanimous.

The debate swirls around the hot topic of when to start school in August. After a few years of earlier starts, Stokes County Schools implemented starting school later in August in the middle part of the last decade. This was a result of a 2004 NC law that mandated Aug. 25 starts and June 10 ends for the school year.