It's not too soon to start thinking about 2012-13 school calendars in Wake County.

The school board is scheduled to discuss and vote Tuesday on the 2012-13 calendars that will be used for traditional-calendar, year-round and modified-calendar schools. The board in the past has usually done the calendars over different dates to allow for changes and to get more public comment.

In this case, the plan is to take care of it all in one day with discussion during committee of the whole and adoption later that evening at the regular meeting.

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST ON THE CHANGES ADOPTED BY THE SCHOOL BOARD

If you're a Wake County traditional-calendar parent, you're not imagining things if it seems like there are a lot of days off or early-release days on Fridays lately.

Between March 11 and April 22, five of the seven Fridays on the traditional calendar are either complete days off for students or are early-release days. For instance, today is listed as a vacation day.

There are several things that have led up to all these interrupted Fridays.

After a few suggestions from Wake County school board vice chairwoman Debra Goldman, the school board is now set to vote Tuesday on 2011-12 school calendars.

The one big change from an earlier draft calendar is that an early release days for traditional-calendar and year-round schools will now be held Oct. 7, a Friday. The early release day was originally slated for two weeks later on Oct. 21 and would have also included modified calendar schools.

During a work session discussion last month, Goldman had noted that Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews, starts sunset Oct. 7. She said sunset will get earlier as the calendar moves into October.

UPDATE

The board approved the revised calendars as presented tonight without any additional changes.

Should Wake County's common early release days be held on Wednesdays or Fridays for the 2010-11 school year?

School administrators are recommending holding the six common early release days on Wednesdays, similar to what's being done this year. The other option presented at Tuesday's student achievement committee meeting is to hold them on Fridays.

The full board could vote on the issue Tuesday.

Wake County traditional-calenar parents may want to keep their winter break plans for the 2010-11 school year flexible.

It's possible that the new school board majority may make changes that would eliminate teacher workdays scheduled for Dec. 22 and Jan. 3, respectively the first and last days of winter break. A work day on Oct. 1 might also be cut.

If they're eliminated, it would be done to build up more potential makeup days to avoid cutting into spring break.

While these are more state than Wake issues, there's obviously some interest in them here.

Yesterday, the state House passed H593, which would allow school districts to start traditional-calendar schools as early as the second Monday in August instead of the current Aug. 25 date.

The state House also passed H856, which would raise the cap on charter schools to 106 schools. The cap has been locked at 100 since the start of charter schools in this state.

Even if the state Senate doesn't approve either bill this year, the big deal is that they passed the crossover legislation deadline. This means both bills could be brought back later this session.