The Rowan-Salisbury School system is looking for input on its proposed 2015-16 academic calendar.

The draft calendar was created by a 30-member committee comprised of parents, community partners, teachers, students, teacher assistants, media, guidance, principals and district personnel.

The proposed calendar meets state requirements for student instructional hours, teacher workdays, holidays and annual leave days.

School would start for students on Aug. 24, and run through June 11, 2016. State law requires schools to begin no earlier than the Monday closest to Aug. 26 and end no later than the Friday closest to June 11.

State law also requires each school district’s academic year to consist of at least 215 days, with at least 185 of those days or 1,025 hours to be used for classroom instruction.

The Rowan-Salisbury School System opted to base its academic year based on hours, rather than days of instruction.

The proposed calendar includes 180 instructional days. Beginning with the 2014-15 school year, an additional 10 minutes of instructional time was added to each school day.

“That was to provide more flexibility in case of inclement weather,” said Public Information Officer Rita Foil.

Each school district is required to have at least 10 teacher workdays, but Rowan-Salisbury has scheduled 12.

“Teachers were wanting more workdays,” Foil said.

The two optional work days can be used if a teacher has accrued enough annual leave.

Workdays, annual leave days and early release days can be converted to instructional days if days are missed due to inclement weather.

“All those days can be moved and shifted,” Foil said.

The following days are listed as optional workdays on the 2015-16 proposed calendar: Dec. 21 and March 25. Required work days are Aug. 17 through 21, Sept. 28, Oct. 26, Jan. 19, Feb. 15, April 25 and June 9 and 10.

Annual leave days are listed as Nov. 25; Dec. 22, 28 through 21 and April 1, and holidays are Sept. 7; Nov. 11, 26 and 27; Dec. 23 through 25; Jan. 1 and 18, March 28 and May 30.

Oct. 23 and Feb. 12 are proposed as early release days. Staff will receive professional development after the students leave.

Anyone with input should email Foil at foilrk@rss.k12.nc.us by Nov. 19.

The Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education will consider approving the proposed calendar at its Dec. 8 meeting.