Remember in elementary school when buying school supplies in September meant school would start in a few days? That’s a memory that students will not experience given Frederick County’s newest addition of the proposed school calendar for the 2023-2024 school year.

For high school students the start date of August 9 is unreasonable. Students and families need to stand up to the Board of Education and say, “No.” Join us in complaint and give your feedback on this FCPS survey by Friday, December 3.

Summer Jobs

One issue is regarding summer jobs. Many teens count on summer to earn money for college, cell phone bills, car payments and more. According to the Pew Reasearch Center, about one third of high school students work summer jobs. At Linganore that would equal about 420 students.

When the school year begins early, most of these teens won’t be able to work the entire month of August. When August gets taken away, those teens don’t get the working hours that they hoped for to either contribute to their families, their own needs or money for college. 

This affects employers as much as it affects the teens. Swimming pools are open until Labor Day, but with no one to lifeguard they would struggle to stay open.

Most people will argue that students who want summer jobs will be able to get a head start if school ends sooner because school will end before Memorial Day, but many employers don’t hire before July 1. 

Problem with summer heat

Not only the summer jobs are an issue, but so is band camp. Band camp will start in mid-July, so that would cause more kids to pratice in the heat of the summer. Band camp isn’t the only one that is going to be impacted. Summer camps will be affected also. 

When schools start so early, gymnasiums in these schools don’t have AC which causes these schools to have use a lot more energy to keep students from being hot.

 Summer Vacations 

Activities and sports aren’t the only disruptions. 

Most families plan their trips in August.  According to a News Gallap article, more than 50% of families in the East travel in August for their summer vacations. 

Some families plan these trips in August to meet with family that they haven’t seen in months. With Frederick County Public Schools starting earlier, this will cause our schools to be completely on a different schedule than the other counties.

Only a few will have an advantage

There are not many advantages to the proposed calendar. One of the advantages is that the first semester of the school year will actually end before winter break, which would have Semester 2 be longer and more effective.

The other advantage is that with the AP students, it gives them a longer time to study for their AP exam and a better chance of success on their tests. 

This is an equity issue.  The change will benefit only our most academic students and harm students who have other priorities.

So this start date would only be affecting a very few students. While there are some advantages, the bad definitely outweighs the good. Even though Frederick County thinks they are doing us a favor by starting school earlier, it is ruining these kids’ summers and being able to experience the wonderful summer we use to have. 

Majority of Marylanders want a later start

Since Govenor Larry Hogan’s 2016 executive order, all Maryland schools had been required to open after Labor Day.

Legislators reversed this common sense, even with 68% of Marylanders voting for schools to start after Labor Day. 

Hogan introduced the Universal School Start Act of 2020 that requires Maryland schools to return after Labor Day to end the mass confusion of every school in Maryland starting at different times. 

Hogan said, “The Universal School Start Act will repeal the legislature’s 2019 misguided bill and return our state to what the citizens actually want and have been demanding for years: the return of the school start to after Labor Day.”