TOWSON, MD – A revised calendar has been approved for the Baltimore County Public Schools 2019 – 2020 school year.
According to this calendar, classes will begin for students following Labor Day. The first day will be Tuesday, September 3, for students and Monday, August 26, for teachers. Spring break will be 10 days long, beginning at the end of the school day on Friday, April 3, and continuing through Monday, April 13. The last day of school will be Friday, June 19, for students and teachers.
The revised schedule includes five pre-service teacher days and five emergency closure days, and it is contingent upon approval from the Maryland State Board of Education to use Presidents’ Day and Easter Monday (which are both state-mandated holidays) as emergency closure makeup days.
The Board of Education of Baltimore County voted to revise the calendar at its Tuesday meeting.
Revisions were necessary because the original BCPS calendar for 2019-2020, approved by the Board of Education on March 5, 2019, was created under the assumption that the student school day of 6.5 hours would be extended by 15 minutes. However, the budget proposed to the County Council by the County Executive did not include funding for the additional 15 minutes.
That left a calendar for 2019-2020 that only provided a 30-minute cushion for the 180 student days and 1,170 student hours required by the Maryland State Board of Education. The calendar had to be adjusted to reasonably accommodate emergency or inclement weather closures.
