Due to the unprecedented amount of snow that the D.C. Metro area has received, the Montgomery County may need to extend the school year.

For the 2013-2014 school year, the Montgomery County Board of Education approved four built-in snow days. This school year, the county has had nine total school days putting us five days over the limit. The state of Maryland requires all school to have a total of 180 school days. Since the county is five days over the limit, five days will be added to the end of the year. This will cause the final day of the year to be June 19 instead of June 13.

“I would be really, really mad if the county decided to extend to extend the last day of school by the four days. I think the year is long enough as is,” sophomore Kera Talsania said.

A request can be sent to the Maryland State Department of Education for a waiver that would allow a pardon for the required 180 day school year and not require Montgomery County Public Schools to add on the five make-up days, keeping the last day of school June 13. The county can decide how many days they will request, so there will have to be a discussion whether or not to waive all, some, or none of the days.

If you can recall the snowstorm that happened in 2010 referred to as “Snowmageddon,” we did not have to make up any days because Governor Martin O’Malley declared a state of emergency so the Department of Education gladly granted Montgomery county a waiver because of the chaos caused by the storm. This year, Governor O’Malley declared a state of emergency on both February 13 and 14, but nonetheless, a waiver for those days would still have to be granted.