After community outcry, the Montgomery County school board reinstated March 20 — the end of the Islamic month of Ramadan this year — as a day off for students.

The recent winter storm kept Montgomery County Public Schools closed for a week, complicating the calendar because state law requires campuses to operate at least 180 days each year.

To make up one of those snow days, district leaders announced that March 20 would be a regular school day, rather than a professional development day for staff. But that falls on Eid al-Fitr, an important day on the Islamic calendar.

Backlash was swift and strong, prompting the school board to backtrack on Thursday, when it voted to make March 20 a holiday for students once again.

But there’s a tradeoff: The district will now extend the school year, bumping the last day of school from June 17 to June 25.

Maybe.

Superintendent Thomas Taylor still hopes for state intervention. A bill working its way through the General Assembly would afford school districts more flexibility to account for unexpected snow days.

If that passes into law, the calendar will get readjusted — again.

“This will be a challenge for our families to understand the yo-yoing back and forth,” Taylor said. “It’s a real pain point for us as well.”

Longer school year?

It’s not that simple to extend the school year deeper into the summer.

Typically, attendance dips once classes push past the originally scheduled last day. Families may have already planned vacations for those added days or enrolled children in summer camps.

State standardized tests are long in the rearview mirror, raising questions about just how much learning is going on in those poorly attended classrooms.

Extending the school year is expensive, too. District officials estimate that it adds roughly $2 million per day.

Summer also has its own holidays. So even though the school year would extend to June 25, campuses would close in observance of Juneteenth and on June 23, Election Day, because campuses serve as polling sites.

State intervention

Earlier this month, MCPS leaders tried to get a waiver from the Maryland State Board of Education, which would have allowed them to hold fewer school days this year. The request was denied.

State law sets out both a minimum number of days — 180 — and a minimum number of hours for each year. Elementary and middle schools must offer at least 1,080 hours of learning, while high schools must offer 1,170.

Montgomery County schools regularly exceed the required hours, but hitting the mandated days proves more difficult.

That’s where the General Assembly could intervene. If the bill passes, it would allow schools to meet either the day or the hour threshold.

“Adding extra school days at the end of the school year is simply a box-checking exercise to comply with state law,” said Del. Julie Palakovich Carr, a Democrat representing part of Montgomery County. “Our school district needs legislative relief.”

District leaders have their fingers crossed, especially as they monitor the potential for more snow this weekend.