Updated at 5:30 p.m. – A state of Maryland education official denied the Montgomery County public school system's first request for permission not to make up two of the six school days it cancelled because of winter weather this year.
Larry Bowers, interim superintendent of Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), wrote Interim State Superintendent Jack Smith on March 16 asking him to waive the days. School systems from across the state frequently make the waiver requests, especially after winters that included major winter storms.
Smith will be taking over as the new superintendent of MCPS in July, so the request was handed over to Interim Deputy State Superintendent Karen Salmon.
In a March 30 letter to Bowers, Salmon denied the waiver request because "your request does not demonstrate an effort to modify the school calendar to make up for lost instructional time."
The school system may resubmit its request. School system spokesperson Derek Turner left open the possibility that MCPS will try again for the waiver.
"We are disappointed in the state’s decision at this point to deny our request for a two-day waiver. We are exploring our options to address this decision and look forward to working with the state to resolve this as quickly as possible so our families will know when the last day of school will be," read a prepared statement provided by Turner. "The state granted a two-day waiver for Prince George’s County’s making their school year 178 days. We simply are asking for the same treatment."
In his letter, Bowers pointed to the record-setting snow storm from Jan. 22 to 24 that wiped out five school days, including all four days scheduled for the week following the storm.
“Due to poor road conditions, we were unable to reopen schools until Monday, February 1, 2016,” Bowers wrote. “However, we remained active in our school communities during this unforeseen break, opening 12 school cafeterias to provide meals at no charge to students and families as well as administering an online ‘snow curriculum’ for our students.”
Bowers also noted the snow storm, which dumped more than 30 inches on some parts of the county, caused Gov. Larry Hogan to declare a state of emergency.
MCPS also cancelled classes Feb. 16, anticipating freezing rain and other treacherous conditions that morning.
It was the school system’s sixth day of cancelled classes this year. All school systems are required by state law to provide 180 days of instruction in a school year, but MCPS built in four extra days in its 2015-2016 calendar. If the state doesn’t approve the waiver request, MCPS will have to make up the remaining two days of class cancelled because of winter weather.
The school system would likely have to do that by tacking the two days on to the end of the school year, now scheduled for June 17.
Bowers wrote it would cost MCPS about $1.5 million to make up those two additional days, money that “would be layered on top of a very difficult budget year in which we have had an expenditure freeze in place since the start of school due to the local fiscal outlook.”
