Heather Curtis
WMAL.com
WASHINGTON (WMAL) – The time has come for the Montgomery County Board of Education to vote on the school calendar for the 2018-2019 school year.
Superintendent Dr. Jack Smith has proposed a 182 day calendar (the state mandates a minimum of 180 days of school) with two days tacked onto the end of the year in case the school system needs to make up snow days, a shortened spring break, a professional day in January, closing for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and a day at the end of the third marking period in April.
In his proposal, Smith wrote it was a challenge to come up with a school calendar that meets Gov. Larry Hogan’s mandate that public schools open after Labor Day and close by June 15.
“At this juncture we know that it is not practical for the 2018-1029 School Year Calendar to meet everyone’s interests and requests,” Smith wrote.
Board of education member Patricia O’Neill said 2,000 people have submitted comments about the superintendent’s proposal all across the board.
O’Neill said many people do not want to see the spring break cut from 10 to six days as the superintendent recommended. The school system was able to maintain the longer spring break this year, but O’Neill said that will be impossible for the next school year because they have a number of challenges they didn’t have this year.
June 15 falls on a Saturday in the 2018 to 19 school year. Both Jewish holidays fall on school days. State law requires schools to close on election day.
The Superintendent’s proposed calendar is one of four. One would keep a full spring break and add a number of half days. Two of the calendars shifted one of the operational closures from a professional day in April to a professional day in June that coincides with the Muslim holiday Eid.
A recommendation has been made to adopt the the superintendent’s proposal.
“One thing’s for sure. Not everyone’s gonna be pleased by the outcome of the vote,” O’Neill said.
The board of education is scheduled to take up the matter Tuesday morning at its 10 o’clock meeting.
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