Students rejoice.
Summer vacation will begin sooner for students in Howard County public schools.
State Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick recently approved Superintendent Sydney Cousin?s request to waive June 16 as a student day and make June 13 the last day for instruction, according to a school system newsletter.
“In order to have a school day waived from the 180 days required by the state, you need approval from the state superintendent,” said school system spokeswoman Patti Caplan.
All school-based staff will still have to report June 16 to close out the school year, Cousin added in the newsletter.
“We?ve received a lot of e-mails from the superintendent thanking them for that,” Caplan said.
The school system used two makeup days for inclement weather, which resulted in June 16 being scheduled as a half day for students.
Andrew Gavelek, the outgoing student member of the school board, said many students were enthused by the news.
“There were a lot of complaints filtered to the board and the superintendent requesting a waiver,” he said.
Caplan said the waiver request just made sense.
“Given the cost of fuel and for having continuity in our high school exam schedule, we felt it would be better to take care of everything [the week before June 16],” Caplan said.
The last three school days are traditionally half days reserved for high school exams.
Other neighboring school systems, like Anne Arundel, also had a waiver granted. Its last day was June 9 but moved to June 6, also a half day, said school system spokesman Bob Mosier.
William Cappe, a specialist with the Maryland Department of Education, said waivers were granted to save on energy costs. There were a handful of other counties outside the region to also be granted requested waivers, like Somerset.
“Each one of the school systems, even with the days moved up, will have exceeded the minimum amount of hours students need to be in school for the school year,” he said.
