by Evelyn San Miguel ‘26

MCPS added 3 half-days to the school year to account for snow days.

In order to meet state requirements for 180 days of instruction, MCPS extended the school year to Tuesday, June 17, designating the last three days of school as early release days in order to allow staff to complete end of year grading and planning, according to a letter from the county. The change comes as a result of four snow and ice days in January and February, cutting into vital time necessary for student learning.

MCPS initially extended the school year by one day in an announcement made on X (formerly Twitter) on January 24. However, as a result of further inclement weather days, the county was required to extend the year to meet the necessary 180-day mandate. The county attempted to repeal the added days and requested a waiver from the state, but were refused.

Without a justified excused absence communicated to the attendance secretary, attendance is still mandatory, especially for high school students. The last days are expected to be similar to last year, with field days planned for students to have some leisure time at the very end of the year.

Since the pandemic and the evolution of virtual learning, solving the problem of lost time was proposed with the announcement for the option for a Code Purple, a virtual learning day in the case of inclement weather that would count for a full school day. Despite having the ability to call a Code Purple, MCPS has yet to take advantage of the virtual learning opportunity as a result of Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) guidelines that school systems “can shift to virtual learning for severe weather conditions only if they have utilized all of their “in person” make-up days designated in the school year calendar.” The calendar includes a significant number of in-person makeup days, including five at the end of the school year. For the 2024-2025 school year, the county opted-out of including Code Purple as an operating status code because it was “very unlikely” that they would shift to virtual instruction under the MSDE guidelines.

Many parents and students, with summer plans taking place shortly after the year ends, feel frustrated with the announcement. The added instructional days extended the school year past the weekend into the following week of June 16-17. In previous years, the school year has ended on or around these dates, but MCPS pushed back the start of the school year to before Labor Day, affecting when the school year ends.

AP Comparative and US Government teacher Michael King felt that the school days would likely vary depending on attendance. “A lot of it will depend on who shows up. If there’s not great attendance, it’ll probably change what I’m doing [in class],” said King. His AP Comparative Government class has about fifteen students, more than half of which are seniors. Since MCPS has no final exams, and AP testing ends mid-May, King has noticed a lot of student apathy toward the final days of the year, since “there’s nothing that [students are] necessarily building towards.”