Megan Miller
Cumberland Times-News
CUMBERLAND — School officials in Allegany and Garrett counties are struggling to piece together academic calendars and instructional plans wrecked by winter weather, but some help might be coming from the state.
In Allegany County, where students have missed eight days of school because of weather so far this year, officials haven’t decided how to handle make-up days.
Allegany County Superintendent David Cox said he’ll have more information about what the local board might do after a statewide meeting of superintendents scheduled for Friday.
“I know that every school system in the state, practically, has been impacted by missing a whole week of school,” Cox said. “We will continue these conversations. As we learn about our options, we’ll let you know.”
For Allegany County students, the last day of school is scheduled for June 8, with June 9-11 and June 14-18 designated as snow make-up days. Last year, the board voted to use Presidents Day and Easter Monday as snow make-up days.
At Tuesday night’s board of education meeting, Allegany County High School teacher Evan West implored members not to extend the school year.
“It’s very difficult to maintain a high level of instruction in those last days of June going into July,” said West, who is also a parent. “And it would be a morale boost for the staff, also.”
Cox said he hopes winter will back off so that the school year can proceed. “We would like to resume some sense of normalcy.”
At the state level, education officials are also hoping to avoid extending school years into mid-summer.
On Tuesday, Maryland Superintendent of Schools Nancy Grasmick will ask the state board of education to waive a few of the 180 days Maryland schools are required to complete in an academic year. If the board agrees, schools might not have to extend their class schedules as far into the summer as they currently expect.
“The waiver wouldn’t necessarily be for all of the days that students have missed, because we do think the 180-day requirement should be taken very seriously,” said Maryland State Department of Education spokesman William Reinhard. “But we’ve had a historic snow in Maryland, and this seems to be something that should be done so students aren’t in school until the Fourth of July.”
The board has approved similar waivers in the past, sometimes tailoring the number of days waived to conditions in individual counties. But Reinhard said Grasmick will probably request a set number of days to be waived statewide.
“The snow has pretty much affected every county,” he said. “Although some got a little less than others, most got a ton.”
As of Wednesday, Garrett County schools had missed 12 scheduled days of class. Without state intervention, Superintendent Wendell Teets said that will probably mean extending the school calendar well past the original last day of classes set for June 8.
“We normally build five days into the calendar as make-up days, and we have the option of using Easter Monday as well,” Teets said. “That will give us six days. The others, at this point in time, would be added on in June.”
Teets said the Garrett school system, too, would benefit from a state waiver, but it’s planning ways to solve the problem on its own, just in case.
“Right now that’s a nonissue for us,” he said. ”We’re just looking at ways to make up the days we have to make up.”
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