Following the school closing on Wed., Feb. 6, 2014, Harford County Public Schools have used all seven inclement weather days built into the 2013-2014 school year.

Maryland has been suffering a frigid winter this year, and the worst is allegedly yet to come. For some students, seniors mostly, this is fantastic news. But for other students the prospect of an extended school year and shortened spring break isn’t worth the cozy snow days. So far Harford County has had seven snow days; if the students of the county are in school less than 180 days then a request must be submitted to the Maryland State Department of Education to waive the days missed.

“Historically, we submit this request in the spring,” Lindsay B. Bilodeau, Harford County Public Schools Communications Specialist, said. “If the state does not approve the submitted waiver request, we would then need to go before the Board of Education of Harford County to request an extension to the school year to make up for the days after Jun. 13.”

The most recent snow days were Feb. 5 and Feb. 6 due to the snow and ice storm that left over 170,000 people without power in Baltimore, Carroll and Harford County.  By Thursday, Baltimore Gas & Electric had returned power to 80 percent of homes, leaving about 33,000 remaining without power. Baltimore County endured most of the outages with about 18,000 homes without power. Most homes had their power restored by Fri., Feb. 7, but some homes are still shivering in the cold.

To provide relief from the freezing temperatures, Patterson Mill High School and two fire departments in northern Harford County were opened as shelters where families could safely wait out the storm.

“Realizing that we are still early on in what is Maryland’s typical inclement weather season, the likelihood of HCPS using more snow days than we have allotted for in our calendar are pretty great,” Bilodeau commented.

Regardless of what winter weather is ahead, make sure to stay safe and keep warm Bobcats! And remember, only 133 days until summer!