The Board of Education adopted the calendar for the 2016-2017 school year at its Dec. 14, 2015 meeting. The school year will begin on Monday, August 29, 2016, and is scheduled to end on Friday, June 16, 2017. To accommodate the September 12, 2016, professional day added by the Board of Education last month, students will now attend school on October 21, 2016, which previously had been scheduled as a non-instructional day.
The school calendar is based on 184 instructional days for students (four more than the minimum required by the state of Maryland) and 193 duty days for teachers. The calendar was developed in partnership with the Montgomery County Council of PTAs, the school district’s three employee associations, and the Montgomery County Region of the Maryland Association of Student Councils, as well as other community members and school system leadership.
The Board also adopted a contingency plan that would extend the school year until June 23, 2017, depending on how many days would be needed to make up for lost instructional time due to emergency closings.
Six members of the Board voted to approve the calendar—Mr. Durso, Dr. Docca, Mr. Barclay, Mrs. Ortman-Fouse, Mrs. Smondrowski, and Mr. Guerci—and two members abstained from the vote—Mr. Kauffman and Mrs. O’Neill.
The Board and staff discussed that MCPS will likely recommend an earlier start to the 2017-2018 school year and will also study how MCPS uses its professional days for staff.