Howard County has decided to extend the 2018-2019 school year to June 21. This winter season has produced five snow days, consisting of: Nov. 15, Jan. 14 and 30, and Feb. 11 and 20. That is one day more than the four inclement weather days allowed on this school year’s calendar.

Anne Arundel County plans to end their school year on June 14, as https://mthmountaindotcom.wordpress.com/wp-admin/edit.phpthey have only had 1 snow day this year. Their calendar, however, only allows 2 inclement weather days.

Baltimore County has also used four snow days, but the school system built seven days into the school calendar, which means three snow days remain before any calendar changes occur.

The decision process to close or delay schools initially starts at 2:45 am and is made final at 4:45 am. However, the final decision can be pushed back to 7:30 if a 2-hour delay has been declared necessary. Once the decision is made it is immediately shared to the media (Twitter, text message, hcpss.org, and Facebook.)

If there is a two-hour delay, all sports and after-school activities are kept on the schedule. But if school is dismissed early or canceled, any evening activities are canceled.

Last school year, 2017-18, Howard County’s Board of Education took away Spring Break in April.

The Maryland General Assembly passed legislation Spring 2018 that allows school to extend their calendars up to five days due to inclement weather. They have added this to preserve Spring Break in future days.

Freshman Jason Kent likes having snow days. However, Kent also dislikes the idea of adding more days to the end of the year.

“The days that we have the snow days, it is very enjoyable, but it is frustrating since they add to the end of the school year,” says Kent.

Kent was also not fond of last year’s decision to remove the spring break. He hopes that it never occurs again because spring break is “the break between so many weeks of school.”

Daniel Maddock is also a freshman at Mt. Hebron, and he says that it is “nice to have a day to chill out,” when school gets tiring.

Maddock says that having the school year extended makes sense because of the set amount of inclement weather days, “but it is unfortunate to have to go to school during our break.”

Freshman Peyton Donnell does not think that adding the days to the end of the year is obscure.

“I don’t really care if we have extra days, because after finals I don’t really care,” says Donnell.

However, Donnell does enjoy having snow days even though her summer break suffers.

“I enjoy sleeping in and having extra time to do homework,” says Donnell.

Students and teachers at Mt. Hebron have shown that even though the extended school year has been scheduled, the general consensus towards the situation is negative. With the possibility of more inclement weather this school year, the possible further extension is keeping students at bay.