John Matthews
WMAL.com
ROCKVILLE — (WMAL) Eleven counties in Maryland will put an early end to summer and open the school year Monday, including Baltimore, Frederick and Prince George’s Counties. Will Montgomery make it a dozen next fall?
Maryland’s largest school district traditionally opens school the week before Labor Day, but later this fall, the Montgomery County Board of Education will formally consider a proposal to start classes a week earlier in 2017, on August 21st.
Proponents say the proposal would allow for an “additional week of instruction prior to end-of-year assessments” and would maximize instruction time. They argue that most real instruction is over shortly after Memorial Day, and by starting – and ending – the school year earlier, the time spent in class would be more productive.
Reaction has been predictably mixed.
One mother WMAL spoke with says she is so used to the status quo, that it would make things difficult to change from the norm, and she worries that children’s camps would not be able to respond to the schedule changes.
However, a teacher told WMAL she can see the benefits of providing more learning time for students before they “check out” for the summer.
The new school year would maintain the same number of instructional days it does now – 185.
The Montgomery Board of Education is currently accepting comments about the proposal, and will take up the new calendar in November.
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