Buncombe County Schools Converts Two Early-Dismissal Days to Full Instructional Days

The Buncombe County Schools Board of Education voted March 10 to convert two previously scheduled early-dismissal days into full instructional days, the latest calendar adjustment the district has made in response to weather-related disruptions to learning.

March 27 and May 1 will now be full school days for students. The board cited inclement weather and unsafe road conditions as the reason for the lost instructional time, and said the conversions will help recover learning time missed last month. The district also noted the changes position BCS to remain in compliance with North Carolina school calendar law if additional winter weather forces further closures before the end of the school year.

The adjustment continues a pattern of calendar revisions Buncombe County Schools has undertaken in recent years to protect instructional time. At a March 2025 meeting, the board approved revisions to the 2024-25 calendar to recover hours lost to Hurricane Helene and inclement weather, converting April 1 and May 23 from early-dismissal days to full school days while changing March 17 from an optional work day to an early-dismissal day. The district calculated that those three changes together added eight hours of in-person instruction overall. Chairman Elliott presided over that meeting, and Superintendent Dr. Jackson provided background on the calendar changes. No board member voiced opposition.

The board has periodically adjusted the academic calendar for reasons beyond weather as well. In August 2023, BCS notified staff and families that the optional teacher workday originally set for March 1, 2024, would shift to March 5, 2024, because several school buildings were designated as polling locations for the election primary.

For the current school year, the March 10 vote means families should expect full school days on both March 27 and May 1, dates that had previously been marked as early-dismissal days on the district calendar. BCS indicated in its release that the conversions serve both as instructional recovery and as a compliance buffer should western North Carolina's unpredictable late-winter weather produce additional closures before spring.