Harford County Public Schools students received some bad news Wednesday: Classes won't end for summer vacation until Friday, June 19, after state education officials denied a request for waivers from some of the days missed because of inclement weather last winter.
The waiver rejection was announced in an automated call to parents, which also said there will be early dismissals across the system on June 19.
In all, HCPS missed 10 days for snow, ice and unusually cold temperatures. To make up some of the missed days, the end of the school year was extended by eight days and two days were taken away from a scheduled five-day spring break in April. State law requires that Maryland public schools be open 180 days for instruction in a 10-month period.
Because of the extreme weather conditions across the state last winter, school systems were told by the Maryland Department of Education that they could apply for waivers of up to three of their missed days against the 180-day requirement. The waivers were to be considered on a case-by-case basis by the state superintendent.
Harford school leaders sent a waiver request for five inclement weather days to the Maryland State Department of Education, HCPS Manager of Communications Jillian Lader said Thursday.
Harford's request was filed after State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery announced she would accept requests from local school districts but before the Maryland State Board of Education announced it would only consider up to three waivers per district, Lader said.
"We've made changes to the school calendar accordingly," Lader said of the rejection.
"The State Board has been very serious in its efforts to make certain Maryland students receive as close as possible to the 180 instructional days as they are entitled to under state law," state education department spokesman William Reinhard wrote in an email. "With that as a goal, [the board] set in place waiver parameters, giving the State Superintendent the authority to waive up to three days. In making a decision, the State Superintendent looks at the inclement weather days that had been built into each system calendar, to make certain those were being used."
According to a letter she sent to Harford Superintendent Barbara Canavan that was dated Monday, Lowery reviewed Harford's request even though it was outside the authority given her to approve up to three waivers. Lowery then summarized the HCPS effort to make up all 10 days that were missed, noting the original school calendar had the provision for eight days at the end of the year for potential make-up days.
"After review and consideration, I must deny your request for a five day waiver," Lowery wrote.
While the last day of school for the majority of HCPS students will be June 19, the last day pre-K students and early intervention programs will be Wednesday, June 17.
According to information given to parents, the June 19 early dismissal schedule will be as follows:
High schools and North Harford Middle School, noon;
Middle schools, 12:45 p.m.;
John Archer School, 1 p.m.
Elementary schools, 1:30 p.m.;
Fourth-tier elementary schools, 2 p.m.
After-school day care programs will provide services on June 19. Parents should contact the program for additional information.
Classes for the 2013-14 school year in Harford ended on June 12. After a dozen days were missed that winter because of inclement weather, Harford received waivers from the state for five of them. Most of the other systems also received multiple waivers.