Close to 14,000 Roanoke City schoolchildren head back to class today, and for the first time in decades, they are doing so before Labor Day. As News/Talk 960’s Evan Jones reports, city school officials say the early start will pay off later in the year.
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It’s not that Roanoke schools didn’t want to begin earlier before, but a long-standing state law prevented them from doing so. Local legislators worked together this year to get that law changed.
Superintendent Rita Bishop says the earlier start gives students at Patrick Henry and William Fleming High Schools more instruction time to prepare for important tests like Advanced Placement, SAT’s and ACT’s. It is time students in many other school systems have always had in many other school systems.
