Welcome to our weekly column in which a topic of interest, piece of news, relevant opinion, or general request for feedback is presented. We’ll offer the topic du jour and accompanying question, and you have the opportunity to respond with your thoughts.
Simply fill out the form below. A collection of each week’s responses will appear in the following week’s column. To view responses on last week’s topic "Inflation & Rising Interest Rates", click here.
Publisher reserves the right to edit responses for clarity and publish online and/or in our print publications.
Please let us know your thoughts!
This week’s Feedback Friday topic is:
School’s Out for (Shortchanged) Summer
This Friday marks the last day of school for Anne Arundel County Public Schools, more than a full week after many other public-school systems have completed their calendar year.
All but two Maryland counties have completed their school calendar year, with some having finished up to three weeks ago. Counties that finished ahead of Anne Arundel include: Allegheny, Baltimore, Calvert, Carroll, Caroline, Cecil, Charles, Dorchester, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, Kent, Montgomery, Queen Anne’s, St. Mary’s, Somerset, Talbot, Washington, Wicomico, and Worcester counties.
Yep, I researched every county in the state.
The only other Maryland county to continue school through this fourth week—yes, fourth week!—of June is Prince George’s, which ended yesterday, 6/23. (And both counties observed the Juneteenth federal holiday this week by closing schools on Monday.)
Many of Maryland’s county public school systems, like Anne Arundel, do not return to school until just before or after Labor Day weekend.
All of this begs the question, why are Anne Arundel County’s students and their families being short-changed on their summer vacations?
If you’re thinking the answer may be make-up days due to weather closings earlier in the year, you may be half-right. But was Anne Arundel’s weather worse that 21 other counties? (There were several closings due to snow forecasts that ended up being rain!) And with all due respect to our teachers, we still must ask, were there too many “professional development” and “teacher work” days put into the schedule? Too many observed holidays?
Or is everything fine in your book. Let us know.
What do you think?
Please share your thoughts by filling out this form. Today’s responses—and all future Feedback Friday responses—will be published in our Monday newsletters after the weekend. AND, several responses from recent topics will appear in our upcoming print magazines!
