State gives St. Mary’s schools a spring break

St. Mary’s County’s harbingers of Spring, the osprey, arrived unfortunately for them and for us a little early. But hope is in the air. To quote St. Mary’s County Board of Education Chairman Dr. Sal Raspa, “The forsythias are blooming, the birds are singing; that means Spring has got to be here.”

The school board had reason to have become amateur meteorologists this year. St. Mary’s County Public Schools (SMCPS) have had 12 snow days, seven delayed openings and four days in which after school programs were cancelled, beginning on December 9^th through Monday. They also had reason to be mathematicians trying to figure out how to make up all of those lost days. State law requires school to be in session for 180 days.

Well, some Spring-like help has arrived in the nick of time in the person of the State Superintendent of Schools. On Wednesday St. Mary’s County became the first school system in the state to be approved with the newly granted authority to waiver five of those lost days.

On February 12^th the school board came up with a plan to make up the days. Since then there has been several additional snow days. That plan called for using the last day of Spring break, Easter Monday (April 21), an in service day on May 2, and extending the school year.

With the granting of the waiver, the school system will now be able to give back that Easter Monday holiday and end school on the date anticipated on the original calendar, June 12^th. Prior to the waiver students were facing two additional days being tacked on to the end of the school year. The May 2^nd day will continue to be a school day instead of an in-service day.

The school board had resisted cutting into Spring break because many families plan vacations during that time and only reluctantly took back Easter Monday when they were left with few options. They were with the waiver able to rescind that earlier decision.

Chesapeake Charter School, which is on a slightly different schedule, will have Friday, June 13 as their last day.

Additionally, 12-month employees, who lost a holiday for President’s Day when school was in session, will be given a day off on the Thursday before Easter; all schools will be closed that day.

School Superintendent Dr. Michael Martirano, who is from Western Maryland and knows about April snow storms, quipped, “This is the latest and greatest plan.” He observed that Garrett County students have had  20 snow days this year.

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