WASHINGTON — March has definitely roared in like a lion, and with more winter weather in the forecast, some school districts are scrambling to figure out how they’re going to make up for snow days they didn’t anticipate.
Students in Stafford County, Virginia will find their school year longer by one day because of the snow — the school year will end June 15 — and three days where students were supposed to get out early will now turn into full days.
Some school districts, such as Loudoun County, are sitting pretty. Loudoun has been working off a calendar for the school year since 1990 with 15 snow days built in. Loudoun has used 10 days this year. Loudoun has fixed dates for graduations and has no truncated vacations.
Prince William County Public Schools used seven snow days so far and had nine delayed openings. It has 3.65 days left before it falls below the state minimum.
Prince William County Public Schools spokesman Philip B. Kavits says the system is in good shape because the school board added 10 minutes to the school day for the entire year. Had it not done so, the system would need to make up days.
Fairfax County Public Schools started with 13 snow days and have used 9.67 days.
Alexandria City Public Schools have one built-in snow day left. It has taken two snow days, so far. All other weather changes have been two-hour delays.
In Maryland, Charles County Public Schools are one day over the snow-day limit. To compensate, the district will cut spring break by a day. The makeup will be on March 30. If there is more bad weather in March, the school district could take more days away from spring break, ask for a waiver or tack days onto the end of the school year.
Other school districts, such as Montgomery County Public Schools and Prince George’s County Public Schools, are waiting for winter to end before making decisions. Both need to make up one day.
In Montgomery County, public schools have taken five snow days, but only had four built in. The MCPS school year could be extended by one day. MCPS Spokesman Dana Tofig says the school district is going to wait until the end of winter because, at this point, they don’t know how many days they’ll need to account for.
Meanwhile, Prince George’s County Public Schools had four built-in snow days but have taken five. The school district could ask for a waiver, but without one, students could be going to school on June 17 — tacking one day onto the end of the school calendar. The school system has not made a decision yet, says PGCPS Spokeswoman Sherrie Johnson.
“We still have March to get through,” she says.
