Harford County Public Schools prepared for the worst, and now the worst has happened.
Snowfall in late December combined with back-to-back blizzards in February have used up all six of the snow days built into the school calendar, meaning that students will now be in class on March 31 and April 1, delaying the start of spring vacation until April 2, Good Friday. Students will also be in school for at least four additional days in June, making June 15 the last day for students in the 2009-10 school year.
Teachers’ professional development days planned for March 31 and April 1 may be rescheduled to the end of the school year, according to the school calendar, making June 18 the new last day of school for teachers.
Additional snow days could add even more days to the end of the school year. But if further school closings are necessary after Feb. 11, spokesperson Teri Kranefeld told The Dagger that Harford County Public Schools plans to ask for a waiver of the state-required 180 school days from the Maryland State Department of Education.
With record snowfalls having closed school systems throughout the State, Harford County won’t be alone.
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I thought State Superintendent of Schools, Nancy Grasmick, approved counties to go to school on Presidents day. Harford County is not going back to school until Tuesday. I figure if we are going to start chopping away at the “pay-back” days, why not send the kids packing on Monday.
What about people who left to go skiing when Terri Kranfield called on thursday and plan on coming back Monday?
With school out today (Feb 12), the plan was for HCPS to request a waiver for one day and perhaps for any additional snow days used after today.
But it now looks like State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick is going to ask for a blanket waiver for all school systems in the state: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/education/bal-md.schools12feb12,0,5061423.story
No word yet on how many days that will be; no guarantee the request to waive state law will be granted; and obviously no one knows whether more snow days will be needed this season. That’s a lot of unknowns.
I’ve been in touch with Teri Kranefeld at HCPS today, and depending on all of the above, there may be changes to the plan for HCPS. Updates to follow ASAP.
Instead of 3 days of professional development after school year 09-10 is effectively over how about just cutting the teachers loose on schedule with the kids? What’s the reasoning behind this??
One of them is the day scheduled for teachers to pck up and turn in keys etc (as if any teacher can clean their room in one day). The other two are days you are paying teachers to do staff development. If you are paying them to work, don’t you want them to work? I agree that not much staff development will be going on.
Seems all too simple. If you’re asking someone to be considerate of budget and take a cut next year, it would be a nice gesture to NOT make them bake the clock for two days.
True but if that is the case you might want to tell them that ahead of time. Not go back after the fact.