Survey: Should Baltimore County Public Schools Start After Labor Day?
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WJZ) -- Should Baltimore County Public Schools start after Labor Day? The school district is asking that question in a survey released to the community Wednesday.
In the survey BCPS asks should schools start on August 26 or September 3?
Parents and concerned community members can take the survey through May 31 online.
Now that school systems can start the school year before Labor Day, the following two calendar options have been proposed:
- Pre Labor Day start: Schools would start on Monday, August 26, 2019, and a full spring break would be included in the calendar from Monday, April 6, through Monday, April 13. (Spring break would be 10 days total in length including six school days.) Teachers would start the school year on Tuesday, August 20, 2019. The last day for students would be on Tuesday, June 16, 2020. The last day for teachers would be Wednesday, June 17, 2020. The Pre Labor Day calendar option is available online.
- Post Labor Day start: Schools would start after Labor Day on Tuesday, September 3, 2019, with a shortened spring break from Wednesday, April 8, through Monday, April 13, 2020. (Spring break would be six days total in length including four school days.) Teachers would start the school year on Tuesday, August 27, 2019. The last day for students would be on Friday, June 19, 2020. The last day for teachers would be Monday, June 22, 2020. The Post Labor Day calendar option is available online.
Some parents said starting school after Labor Day makes for a longer summer, but teachers said there's a trade-off- a longer summer- means a shorter spring break.
"I actually believe starting after Labor Day makes a lot of sense. I think families like to have the opportunity to have family vacation in August and I think when you start before Labor Day it really shortens up the summer," said parent Michael Boyea.
The BCPS 2019-2010 calendar was already approved by the Board of Education on March 5, assuming the 6.5 hour school day would be extended by 15 minutes, but the budget proposed to the county council did not include the 15-minute extension.
That means there's only a 30-minute cushion for the 180 student day and 1,170 hours required by the state's Department of Education.
Teachers Association of Baltimore County has not agreed to renew the current school year's memorandum of understanding to add five minutes to the student day, which provided a cushion of 18.5 hours for the 2018-2019 school year. The additional five minutes would have provided a cushion of 15.2 hours for the 2019-2020 school year.
The General Assembly recently overturned Gov. Larry Hogan's executive order from 2016 mandating schools start after Labor Day.
The new law now leaves it up to individual school districts.
Abbey Beytin with the Baltimore County Teachers Association said the teachers' vote is to start before Labor Day weekend to give a break in the spring.
"This year it was really tough, they're really feeling the effects of not having that downtime. They really needed it," Beytin said.
Beytin also said starting schools before Labor Day means more time for teachers to get students ready for AP exams in May.
But some parents said students want a longer summer.
"I feel as though the kids need more days in the summer instead of starting in August," said parent Charles McLean.
