On February 5th, MCPS announced that it had made a decision regarding actions that will be taken as a result of instructional days lost to weather emergencies. An announcement from MCPS Chief Operating Officer Andrew Zuckerman outlined how MCPS will address make-up days while complying with state-mandated school end dates.

So far, MCPS has closed school a total of three times during the school year due to weather — November 15, January 14, and January 30. As a result, the MCPS 2018-2019 school year will be extended by one day.

According to Zuckerman, “Our MCPS school calendar has 182 student instructional days, 2 more than the minimum of 180 school days as required under State law. As a result, we currently only need to make up one day so far. As noted above, this day will be made up on Friday June 14, 2019.”

Zuckerman also noted that if there is a fourth school closure, then Wednesday, June 5 will be the next make-up day added to the school calendar. “The school calendar contains two additional emergency weather make-up days—April 17 and April 18, 2019,” noted Zuckerman, who also expressed that these days would need to be discussed with a number of stakeholders before being implemented.

School districts, due to an Executive Order by Governor Larry Hogan in 2016, must complete their instructional calendar no later than June 15. However, school districts may apply to extend the school year past June 15 for emergency make-up days.