SALISBURY – Wicomico County Public Schools will seek the approval of the Maryland State Board of Education to adjust this year’s school calendar following a recent winter storm that shut down schools for five days.
On Tuesday, the Wicomico County Board of Education agreed to Superintendent Donna Hanlin’s recommendation to adjust the 2017-2018 school calendar pending the approval of the state board.
Hanlin said the school system will ask to be excused from two school closures on Jan. 4 and 5.
“The first two days of that storm the governor did declare a state of emergency in the three lower shore counties,” she said. “Some of the public understand or believe that those days are automatically excused. They are not automatically excused. We have to ask for those days to be excused.”
If approved, Hanlin said Wicomico County Public Schools will be on track to finish the school year on June 12, three days ahead of Gov. Larry Hogan’s executive order to end schools by June 15.
“With that waiver to adjust the school calendar, that makes us, at this date and time, square,” she said. “We will have made up the days that we needed to makeup.”
However, Hanlin said she would also seek conditional approval from the state board to have students attend schools during scheduled holidays in the event of additional school closures.
“I’m also trying to anticipate what we would do in the event that we would have more school closures,” she said.
Hanlin recommended using half of a professional day on March 29 if schools are closed an additional day and going to school on both the professional day and Presidents Day if schools are closed two additional days.
“That is my last choice to do that, but I do want us to be prepared in case,” she said.
Hanlin stressed the school calendar for the current year would not be adjusted until the state board approves the waiver and school closure adjustments.
“I’m seeking your approval to adjust the calendar as I described pending state board approval,” she said.
The board voted 6-0, with board member Maria Waller absent, to approve a calendar adjustment pending state board approval.
The board on Tuesday also approved the calendar for the 2018-2019 school year.
The calendar features start dates of Sept. 4 and 5 and an end date of June 12. The calendar was modified so the professional day originally scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 7, was moved to Monday, Nov. 5., allowing for more continuity in a week when schools will already be closed Tuesday, Nov. 6, for the general election.
Board member William Turner said emails from parents, teachers and staff led school officials to modify the calendar.
“It reflects the school board’s willingness to listen to the public, and I think it’s important to share that,” he said.
Board President Donald Fitzgerald agreed.
“I think sometimes we get a bad rap that we don’t listen, but we do …,” he said. “This is a situation where they spoke, and we listened.”
