by Devon Goldstein ’21

 MCPS has added an additional school day to the 2018-2019 school year in response to emergency weather conditions causing schools to be closed. MCPS will now be open on Friday, June 14. MCPS has been closed three times this school year, which is one more day then permitted for closure due to weather conditions. The MCPS calendar has 182 instructional days, they need to meet the 180 instructional days required by state law.

 If there is a fourth school closure due to emergency weather conditions, the next make-up day will be Wednesday June 5. Adding that will result in taking away the originally scheduled professional day for teachers. After that, the calendar contains two other possible make-up days on April 17 and April 18. Recognizing that those days would result in a shortened spring break, MCPS officials have been contacted about possibly extending school into the week of June 17th. The school year typically does not close for more than four days due to emergency weather conditions, so MCPS is hopeful that adding additional days will not be necessary.