Lee County Schools Superintendent Dr. Andy Bryan announced Friday afternoon that he will recommend Tramway Elementary operate on a traditional rather than year round calendar for the 2020-2021 school year.
Bryan remarked on this and other important calendar changes in a Facebook post. A special meeting for the Lee County Board of Education has been called for Monday at 5 p.m. to consider these changes.
Bryan stated that the district would recommend that Tramway Elementary adopt a traditional calendar for one year and then return to a year-round calendar for the 2021-22 school year to “have the same amount of time to safely prepare Tramway as traditional schools for students and staff in August.”
“Although we have worked internally on a plan for re-entry at all schools, we are still awaiting guidance from the Department of Public Instruction and the Department of Health and Human Services about specific guidelines for North Carolina public schools,” Bryan stated. “Because of this uncertainty, we do not feel comfortable from a health and safety perspective to recommend that Tramway opens for staff on July 9 and students on July 15. The logistics of preparing the building and staff for an opening six weeks away seems unmanageable.”
Also, legislation from the N.C. General Assembly requiring year-round schools to adhere to a strict “45 days on, 15 days off” rule would mean that Tramway would have to stay in session until June 16, 2021, giving the school just a three-week summer next year.
As of now, Tramway is the district’s only school that operates on a year-round calendar.