Due to recent snow-related closures that occurred between January and February this year, MCPS decided on Thursday, Feb. 19 to move the final school day by over a week from June 17 to June 25. The extension was designed to accommodate important events in the final two weeks of the updated school year, with non-instructional days on June 19 for Juneteenth, and on June 23 for county elections. Additionally, Wednesday, June 24 and Thursday, June 25 were designated as half days.  

These days had previously been designated as make-up days in case of emergency closures due to weather or other emergency situations, such as the January storm that prompted over a week of cancellations. One of these days was March 20, which falls on the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Fitr that marks the end of Ramadan. Though originally designated as an instructional day in response to the closures, MCPS reversed this decision due to widespread backlash, especially from the county’s Muslim community. Moreover, April 15, which was once designated as a grading day for teachers and a non-instructional day for students, has been changed to a half day, with the due date for third-quarter grading moved to April 20 as well.

MCPS is required to make up all missed school days, because Maryland law states that all counties must complete 180 instructional days throughout the school year. These school requirements can be waived by the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) if a request is sent by the school district; however, on Feb. 9, MCPS made a request to the MSDE, which was subsequently declined the following day. As a result, MCPS was required to make up four school days, leading to the extension of the school year until June 25.

In a message to the community, MCPS stated that they “understand these changes may affect family schedules, childcare arrangements, and summer plans.”

Math teacher Laura Goetz shared this sentiment, along with many other RM staff and students, who have been forced to adjust their summer plans due to the changes made to the school year. “I do have plans for when summer ends that I would need to adjust if they said that we had to keep going even longer,” she said.

Additionally, Ms. Goetz also criticized MCPS’s lack of contingency plans for such situations. “I do think a lot of students and staff will be absent. I think it impacts the money people have to spend to keep the school open and how the school has to be cleaned, especially in time for summer school, and camps that would usually be run at this school or other schools will be impacted. I think it has a lot of negative impact, and I don’t think there was a good enough plan for the snow going into it. I understand the laws… there are laws that say that you have to be in school for many days or hours, but there should be some plan besides just hoping it doesn’t snow.”

In another community message, MCPS acknowledged the financial costs of extending the school year, stating that “it costs the taxpayers $2.1 million each day that [they] operate for a make-up snow day.” Moreover, MCPS also added that they are working with the Maryland State General Assembly in order to pass a bill that would allow school systems to only have to meet a minimum amount of hours, instead of days. This would in turn allow the county to remove the additional school days that were added, because MCPS’s original schedule would have exceeded the minimum amount of hours.

Along with teachers, students are also being affected by the extension of the school year. Freshman Bryce Tabenblood expressed that the extra school days had caused changes to his plans on going to summer camp. “Some of the days [of] school got extended to my camp, and it may cause me to miss a few days,” he said.

Tabenblood acknowledged the necessity to extend the school year, but agreed with Ms. Goetz that MCPS’s handling of the schedule changes was unsatisfactory. “I believe that there was education to be made up, but extending [the school year] to that extremity will create challenges for students’ summer plans,” he said. “I believe that spring break could have been cut down more instead of summer.”