Martin Luther King Day will not be a holiday for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools students and employees this year.

The district announced late Tuesday that Jan. 17 will be one of three snow makeup days, along with Feb. 18 and Feb. 21.

The news drew quick rebuke from Charlotte NAACP President Kojo Nantambu.

"Is (CMS Superintendent) Peter Gorman as cold as the winds and weather we are experiencing...?” Nantambu said in a statement late Monday. “Can he ever warm up to equality? Can he ever recognize the fight of Dr. Martin Luther King and recognize his holiday?”

Nantambu said he was “appalled and thoroughly incensed” by what he characterized as Gorman’s decision and asked that the superintendent reconsider.

“Once again Dr. Gorman has shown total disdain and disrespect for a very significant part of this community,” he said. “He continues to demonstrate a blatant deliberate disconnect with the African American Community.”

City Council member Patrick Cannon was quoted in the Charlotte Observer as saying the decision showed insensitivity to the legacy of the civil rights hero.

"It shows a sign of disrespect even if that's not what is intended," Cannon said. "More consideration should be given."

CMS spokeswoman Latarzja Henry said the district’s calendar was approved two years ago by a different school board. That board, she said, approved 14 days as potential makeup days for inclement weather. The King holiday was fourth in line. (The first three dates have already passed.)

Henry said the CMS calendar is always approved in advance and that a series of makeup days is recommended to the board by a staff committee that solicits feedback from employees at all levels.

“We make recommendations as a staff and the board approves the calendar,” she said.

Henry said only the school board has authority to adopt or change the CMS calendar.

The 14 approved makeup dates for the current school year are:

Sept. 9, 2010
Sept. 10, 2010
Nov. 24, 2010
Jan. 17, 2011
Dec. 22, 2011
Feb. 18, 2011
Feb. 21, 2011
March 18, 2011
May 30, 2011
April 18, 2011
April 19, 2011
April 20, 2011
April 21, 2011
April 22, 2011

The makup days must be used in order, Henry said.

At least one NAACP supporter is calling for CMS parents to keep children home on King Day and take them, instead, to a downtown protest.

QUESTION: Are you offended by the CMS decision to use the King holiday as a snow makeup day? Would you support the idea of keeping students home that day?

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