State Grants MCPS Waiver for Five Snow Days; Classes End on Schedule with no additional days added into Summer

Maryland State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick has granted a five-day waiver to Montgomery County Public Schools, meaning the district will not have to make up the snow days that resulted from back-to-back blizzards in February.

If there are no more emergency school cancellations this school year, the calendar will not be adjusted and classes will end, as scheduled, on June 16, 2010.

MCPS has lost nine days of instruction due to snow this year—December 21-23, February 3 and February 8-12. The Montgomery County Board of Education had already built four snow days into the 2009-2010 calendar.

State Board Sets Limited Waiver Process for Snow

Depending on how many days the State Superintendent grants us, this will allow MCPS to relieve some of the snow days that are added onto the summer. However, the hours requirement will still be in place.

--

MSDE Press Release: BALTIMORE (February 22, 2010) – The Maryland State Board of Education today set forth a limited waiver process for Maryland school system calendars affected by the historic snow storms of this winter.

School systems may request a waiver of up to five days from the required 180-day instructional calendar due to the inclement weather that affected the State during storms in December and February. The State Board has authorized the State Superintendent to approve individual requests from local system superintendents to make adjustments in the school calendar.

State law requests schools be open for a minimum of 180 instructional days. The law also grants the State Board authority to make adjustments to the school year if normal school attendance is prevented by severe weather. Under the waiver provision, systems must demonstrate that they have made sufficient effort in providing instruction through calendar planning and modifications.

“We believe that 180 instructional days is a bare minimum in a competitive world where some nations keep students in school for 220 days or more,” said State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick. “At the same time, we recognize that severe weather conditions this year have been unprecedented, and the State Board believes that some flexibility must be granted.”

Due to federal deadlines and a tight scoring schedule, Maryland does not have the option to delay the Maryland School Assessments (MSAs). Students will take the annual MSAs as scheduled, beginning the week of March 8, but State officials have said they will ask the U.S. Department of Education for special flexibility to maintain the same scoring targets that were in place for 2009. This practice has been used by other states in severe circumstances.

Under federal law, schools and school systems must meet steadily increasing scoring targets to maintain what is known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Under the No Child Left Behind Act, schools and systems strive to make AYP in order to reach the overall goal of having 100 percent of all students scoring at proficient levels in reading and mathematics by 2014.

Maryland’s proposal would maintain the overall 2014 target, but would not increase the interim target from 2009 to 2010. Instead, Maryland schools and systems would be required to make greater improvement by 2011, a target which would not be altered.

Snowpocalypse Waiver Possible

Many of you have asked the question: what will happen as a result of our snow days? As of right now, MCPS has missed 9 school days due to this historic weather. Maryland State Law requires that school systems have 180 school days built into the year. That would mean that we would extend our school year by 5 days into the summer. We probably have two more days in the summer we can add on to until we start going into spring break.

However, Montgomery County Public Schools is currently seeking a waiver for this 180-day rule. The ruling would be determined by the State Superintendent and the State Board of Education at the Maryland State Department of Education. To give you all some historical background, back in 2005, MSDE excused several days of this 180 rule because of Hurricane Katrina. It looks like the State is pursuing a similar measure as a result of this year's weather.

But here's the twist, the state also has an HOURS requirement. Middle schools must have 1080 hours and high schools must have 1170 hours in a school year. This is why it is detrimental to have consistent 2-hour delays or early releases even though we have a school day. Unfortunately, this hours requirement cannot be waived. So MCPS administration is looking to see some ways where we can expand the number of school hours.

I will keep you guys up to date as we deal with the situation.