Montgomery County Public Schools on Tuesday asked permission not to have to make up three snow days.
The school system had seven snow days this winter, three more than the four extra days automatically built in to the calendar. Each school system in Maryland must have at least 180 days of instruction.
But in the case of particularly bruising winters, school systems can get waivers from the Maryland State Board of Education not to have make up snow days — even if it means having less than 180 days of school.
If the state board denies the waiver request, as it initially did last year, the MCPS school year could be extended to June 15, 16 and 17. Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers sent the state board a waiver request citing cost issues:
“MCPS is prepared to follow the contingency calendar which would move the last day of classes to Wednesday, June 17, 2015. However, adding these three days will cost between $1.7 million and $2 million, mostly due to personnel costs,” MCPS announced. “Given financial concerns in the county, Mr. Bowers said it made sense to seek a waiver of the three days. The Maryland State Board of Education is expected to consider the waiver at its meeting on March 24, 2015.”
MCPS also said it considered making up one of the snow days on Friday, March 27, which is a no-school day for students but a teacher work day for grading and reporting.
“However, since the State Board will not consider waivers until March 24, it was not feasible to make March 27 part of the request,” MCPS announced.
Last year, MCPS agreed to make up two snow days after a total of 10 days of class were cancelled because of wintry weather. One of those make-up days came on the Monday after Easter and another was tacked on to the end of the school year in June.
