Updated Wednesday – Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) remained closed Wednesday after last weekend’s snowstorm.
The school system made the announcement Tuesday at 4:41 p.m. All school and community activities in school buildings are also canceled Wednesday but day care programs in school buildings may open at 10:30 a.m. The school system's administrative offices opened two hours late.
It's the third straight day that school was canceled because of the snow. Classes were canceled Friday in anticipation of the storm, which dropped between 18 and 39 inches of snow around the county starting Friday afternoon until early Sunday morning.
Monday was already scheduled as a day off for students and a professional day for teachers. The school system canceled the teacher professional day and all school buildings were closed to childcare providers and community activities.
School buildings and the school system’s administrative offices remained closed Tuesday as crews continued to clear out parking lots, sidewalks and bus loops of snow. A school system spokesperson said snow removal activities were about 60 percent complete as of Tuesday morning.
MoCo Snow, a popular website run by a teacher in the school system who predicts snow closures, started a Facebook thread that by Tuesday afternoon featured dozens of photos of county schools with snow-filled parking lots and some schools where snow had been plowed or removed.
High school basketball games, bocce matches and wrestling meets rescheduled to Wednesday from Tuesday had to be pushed back again. The school system’s athletic director released a contingency plan with new dates and times for all rescheduled games.
In January 2010, MCPS closed for an entire week due to two significant snow storms within three days of each other.
The school system has built in four extra days of instruction to account for emergency closures such as snow days and still meet the state’s minimum requirement for instructional days. If the school system exceeds the four emergency closures, it can petition the state for a waiver not to have to make up instructional days in June.
