with schools closed Monday and Tuesday, is the school year now extended?

[Anonymous]

the MCPS website doesn't say. thx

[Anonymous]

According to my friend who is a teacher, in MCPS if the state declares a state of emergency, the state can petition for a waiver for missing school that day. But, for each day off that is not in a state of emergency or for which a waiver is not given that is over and above the contingency days built into the calendar, the remedy is adding on to the end of the year. The contracts don't allow for taking away holidays or vacation days during the school year. This being said, I don't know how many days are built into the calendar for snow days.

[Anonymous]

I think the last time MCPS exceeded its allotted number of snow days was the 2003-2004 academic year when Hurricane Isabelle struch and forced schools to close for several days. If I"m remembering correctly, whichever state agency has the authority to grant a waiver (can't recall if it's the MD BOE or the legislature), did so, but I also think we were just one or two days over the allotted number. With more snow coming this week, and heaven knows what else Mother Nature has in store for the remainder of the school year, we might go over by more than that this year.

[Anonymous]

I've always understood that five emergency closings were built into the calendar. With school closed tomorrow, we have exceeded the five and need to either add on to the calendar at the end of the year or open school on a holiday like President's Day. With school scheduled to end on Wednesday June 16, it wouldn't bother me to have the school year extended.

[Anonymous]

Here's the info from the MCPS website:

School Contingency Calendar, 2009-2010
If the school year should be disrupted by emergencies and schools are closed, the school year will be extended.

If schools are closed... The school year will be extended by...
5 days one day to June 17, 2010
6 days two days to June 17 and 18, 2010
7 days three days to June 17, 18, and 21, 2010
8 days four days to June 17, 18, 21, and 22, 2010
9 days five days to June 17, 18, 21, 22 and 23, 2010

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/calendars/

[Anonymous]

OP here.

Yes, PP, I saw that, but I just don't remember how many days we have lost now. Have we lost five including today?

[Anonymous]

According to my records, school was closed Dec 21, 22, 23 and again Wed. January 27th. So with the expectation that kids will be out the entire week of Feb. 8th, that totals nine closings. Meaning school will dismiss for the year one week later on Wed June 23rd. That's according to their calendar, so we'll have to see if Weast confims that.