MCPS Makes Official Snow Waiver Request
Montgomery County Public Schools officially sent a letter Tuesday to the Maryland State Board of Education to request a waiver to go three days below the 180 days of instruction required by state law.
The 2014-2015 calendar adopted by the Montgomery County Board of Education includes 184 days of instruction, with the last day of school scheduled for Friday, June 12. The four additional days built into the calendar allow for the district to close for weather or other emergency conditions up to four times and still meet the minimum number of required instructional days. Most years, the additional four days are adequate but, in 2014-2015, MCPS has had seven snow days.
The Board-approved calendar also includes five contingency days—June 15 through June 19—on which school will be held if MCPS closes for more than four days due to weather conditions. MCPS is prepared to follow the contingency calendar which would move the last day of classes to Wednesday, June 17, 2015, according to a press release from the school system. However, adding these three days will cost between $1.7 million and $2 million, mostly due to personnel costs. Given financial concerns in the county, Interim Superintendent Larry 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.
MCPS considered making up one day of instruction on Friday, March 27, which is not a school day for students, but is a teacher work day for grading and reporting, according to the news release. However, since the State Board will not consider waivers until March 24, it was not feasible to make March 27 part of the request.
Should MCPS need to make up any days this year, the district expects to follow the contingency calendar and add those days to the end of the school year.
You can read the letter send to the State Board of Education below.
MCPS Snow Day Waiver On State Board of Ed Agenda
The Maryland State Board of Education is expected to make a decision Tuesday morning on how many days Montgomery County Public School students will spend in class in June. The state board is scheduled to meet Tuesday morning. The state superintendent is scheduled to give a report at 11:40 a.m. on school system calendar modifications during […]
MCPS Makes Official Snow Waiver Request
Montgomery County Public Schools officially sent a letter Tuesday to the Maryland State Board of Education to request a waiver to go three days below the 180 days of instruction required by state law. The 2014-2015 calendar adopted by the Montgomery County Board of Education includes 184 days of instruction, with the last day of […]
MCPS Requests State Snow Waiver
It’s possible that Montgomery County Public Schools students won’t have to make up the three snow days they missed after all. MCPS School Board has applied for a waiver of up to three days from the Maryland State Department of Education. According to Interim Superintendent Larry Bowers, making up the three snow days would cost the school system […]
Honestly, the State would allow and even pay for the worthless PARCC, a test which takes away from educational instruction and add not allow for an extra couple of days due to weather? That’s absurd. My daughter read books and did math puzzles on those snow days, so essentially she learned more whole being off of school than those days time-sucked by the PARCC. I am more and more disappointed in MD’s school system as the years pass.