The calendar for the next school year for Harford County Public Schools comes with six days set aside as makeups for when schools are closed for inclement weather, although the school system’s communications manager noted the terminology of “inclement weather days” might have to change in the future.
Members of the school system’s 37-person calendar committee did discuss, during their final review of the recommended calendar for the 2021-22 school year, public queries about whether inclement weather days “were necessary to include in the school calendar any more for our school system,” Manager of Communications Jillian Lader said while presenting the calendar to the Board of Education on Dec. 21.
“We did have discussion around this, but did determine that it would be important to continue to include those days, possibly changing the terminology from inclement weather to emergency makeup days,” Lader said.
Committee members noted that “we could have situations like a power outage that would make virtual learning a challenge, and that the system may need to, in the future, make up a day for a closure such as that,” Lader added.
Superintendent Sean Bulson, in a text message Thursday, said there has been no firm decision whether students would be required to log-in to class virtually when buildings are closed because of snow or other inclement weather in future years, even if schools were to return to normal, in-person learning that preceded the COVID-19 pandemic.
School officials announced earlier in December that students would still have to attend virtual classes during snow days this year, although classes would be canceled in cases when the winter weather was severe enough to cause widespread power outages. The majority of HCPS’ more than 37,000 students have been learning online during this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lader presented the final recommended version of next year’s calendar to the board following early December discussions by committee members, who reviewed the results of a 60-day public comment period on the document. The calendar went out for public comment after a prior presentation to the school board on Sept. 21.
The calendar proposal prompted 12 public comments, including a handful about the start day for 180 days of classes for students — the next school year begins Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and Friday, Sept. 10, for pre-kindergarten students.
Schools will be closed Monday, Sept. 6 for Labor Day and Tuesday, Sept. 7 for the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Schools are typically closed during the Jewish high holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and next year will be no exception — they will be closed Thursday, Sept. 16 for Yom Kippur.
Some commenters on the start date for next year requested that schools begin before Labor Day next year, while others wanted classes to start the day after Labor Day. Lader emphasized to the school board that they must start Sept. 8 because of the religious holiday.
Jewish high holidays fall on different days each year in September and October, and Rosh Hashanah happens to fall the day after Labor Day in 2021.
One commenter suggested that HCPS not observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at all, while another person made a request that the school system observe Muslim holidays. Yet another person suggested starting the school year before Labor Day and extending the end of the year later into June “for more school and less breaks,” Lader said.
The next school year is scheduled to end Friday, June 10, 2022, for students in kindergarten through 11th grade — pre-K students’ last day is Wednesday, June 8 — if none of the makeup days are used. The last day for students would be Monday, June 20 if all the days are needed.
The board voted unanimously in favor of next year’s calendar, although one member had suggestions for future years.
Board member David Bauer said he “definitely would prefer an earlier start” to the next school year, noting HCPS had started the year before Labor Day in the past, before Gov. Larry Hogan issued an executive order in 2016 mandating a post-Labor Day start for public schools statewide.
“I recognize that, for this calendar, that input is quite late, so in recognition of the hard work that has gone into this, I am not recommending any changes at this time,” Bauer said.
Member Joyce Herold waxed nostalgic for last year, when “our drama was over the calendar, and now look at what we’ve got.” Board members and school officials have faced a major public outcry, even several protests at the HCPS headquarters in Bel Air, this summer and fall as many parents plead for a return to in-person learning.
“I wish that we could switch it to last year,” Herold said, laughing.
She and her colleagues engaged in a two-hour debate in early January 2020 over the proposed calendar for the current school year, which included a post-Labor Day start. The debate came on the heels of more than 500 public comments and multiple Facebook posts on the subject of the school start date — about two-thirds of the public comments and three quarters of the Facebook posts expressed support for starting before Labor Day.
The board ultimately approved a calendar with a post-Labor Day start, following a compromise offered by member Sonja Karwacki.
Member Patrice Ricciardi echoed Herold’s comments about the difference between this year and last year’s discussions over the calendar.
“I’m glad to see that the public seems satisfied,” she said, citing “the minimal number of comments” on the 2021 calendar.
“I think that this is a really good calendar, and I’m pleased with the way it turned out,” said board Vice President Rachel Gauthier, who is among the school board members on the calendar committee, along with member Carol Mueller and student representative Phoebe Bailey.