Worcester students, staff could see school year shortened again

(March 5, 2010) Worcester County students could see their extended school year shortened again, as the state has offered school systems the opportunity to apply for a waiver of up to five school days because of the unusually bad winter weather.

The entire Mid-Atlantic has been hit hard by a series of unexpected snowstorms in recent weeks, and Maryland is no exception. The unprecedented levels of snow — reaching more than three feet in some areas of the state — have led to many more snow days than the schools were prepared to handle.

So far this school year, Worcester County public schools have been closed 10 days for weather-related reasons. The school calendar only works in three weather days, leaving seven days to be made up.

In February, the board of education decided to eliminate one professional day and one day of the spring break to add two more days of instruction to the calendar, but the school year still had to be extended by five days to meet the state requirement of 180 days of instruction for students. The last day of school is set for June 22.

“It was tough to take away the extra day of spring break, but we felt like we had to do something,” board President Bob Hulburd said.

Last week, the state board of education offered local school systems the opportunity to apply for a waiver of the 180-teaching day requirement because of the unanticipated storms and closures. Schools can ask for up to five days to be waived from the school calendar.

“We are going to consider taking advantage of the waiver opportunity because of the unprecedented weather this year,” Hulburd said. “We are concerned with making sure the children are in school as much as possible, but we don’t want the kids going to school until the Fourth of July either.”

During the March 16 board meeting, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jon Andes plans to recommend that the board take advantage of the waiver application to shorten the school year a bit for the teachers and students. Since there is still more winter weather in the forecast that could cause even more snow days, he will wait until then to see how many of the five days he will recommend the board asks to be excused.

“I’ll be recommending to request a waiver so we can complete the school year in the third week of June. Unfortunately, winter’s not over yet. But I’m hoping by March 16, spring will be here and all the snow will be behind us,” Andes said.

Local school systems are not guaranteed to have the instruction days waived just because they ask. They must demonstrate that they made efforts to make up the snow days by altering their calendars, something Worcester County already did by eliminating the two holidays.

“There is a reality, that we don’t have many options” for eliminating more holidays from the school calendar, schools spokeswoman Barb Witherow said. “Spring break or Memorial Day are the only remaining options to make up days.”