September 7, 1994
Mr. Bob Etheridge State Superintendent of Public Instruction Education Building Raleigh, N.C. 27602
Re: Advisory Opinion; G.S. § 115C-84; State Board of Education; Authority to Reduce 180-day School Term for an Individual School
Dear Mr. Etheridge:
G.S. § 115C-84(c) directs local boards of education to build into their school calendars a specified number of "make-up days" that can be used to complete the full 180 day school term in the event it becomes necessary to cancel school because of "weather conditions, natural disaster or other emergency." In the event those "make-up days" are exhausted, that statute authorizes a local school board to petition the State Board to excuse additional days missed because of weather or emergencies and authorizes the State Board to excuse those additional days if it finds that the request is justified.
In practice G.S. § 115C-84(c) has been applied only when all the schools in a local school system are closed. When an emergency requires the closing of only one school, a request from a local school board to allow a reduction of the 180 day school term for that school has been resolved under a rule adopted by the State Board. Under that rule a local school board may petition the State Board to reduce the school term for that school to less than 180 days "without loss of credit to students or pay to staff, regardless of the status of school closings and the make-up days for the administrative unit as a whole." 16 NCAC 6A.0003 (1990)
On behalf of the State Board you have asked if this rule is consistent with the provisions of G.S. § 115C-84(c), and if not, whether the rule is nevertheless within the constitutional powers of the State Board.
In answering the question it is important to bear in mind that the Constitution requires the General Assembly to provide for "a general and uniform system of free public schools", one component of which is a 180 day school term. N. C. Const. Art. IX, § 2(1). Acts of the General Assembly regarding the 180 day school term, therefore, should be construed in a manner consistent with the General Assembly’s obligation to provide for a uniform 180 day school term throughout the State.
In our opinion G.S. § 115C-84(c) governs the closing of an individual school within a local school system as well as the closing of all schools in the system. The scope of the statute is clear from the first sentence: "There shall be operated in every school in the state, a uniform term of 180 days for instructing pupils." (emphasis added). Nothing elsewhere in that statute, or any other statute, indicates that the required 180 day term may be reduced for an individual school within a local school system on any different basis than for the local school system as a whole. Because G.S. § 115C-84(c) sets out a single method and standards for permitting reductions in the constitutionally required 180 day school term, it is our opinion that a State Board rule
establishing a different method and standard for excusing the closing of a single school in a
system is inconsistent with that statute.
While we believe the State Board of Education generally has the power under the Constitution to
adopt rules in areas not addressed by the General Assembly and to adopt rules to implement
statutes so long as those rules are consistent with the statute, we do not believe the State Board
has the power to adopt a rule inconsistent with statutes enacted by the General Assembly. We
therefore recommend that 16 NCAC 6A.0003 be repealed and that other rules be revised to
reflect that the closing of individual schools in a school system will be treated the same as the
closing of all schools in a system.
Edwin M. Speas, Jr.
Senior Deputy Attorney General