Snow days are some the best days of the very lengthy school year. They come as a surprise to some students who stay fast asleep until their daily alarm rings, while some wake up extra early to see what the county decides to do. You look outside your window and hope to see a whiteout with the roads covered in snow. These days provide students with a free mental break to relax at home, hang out with friends or have fun in the snow.

The county recently made a change to the school year schedule so that the students return after Labor Day weekend instead of the week before. This left the county with little to no wiggle room for missed days. This brings unexpected and unnecessary consequences for the students and staff compared to the old schedule. The county used to have a full school week on retainer in case of weather emergencies (that almost always got completely used), but now that students are on the schedule to return after Labor Day weekend, the county has allotted only two snow days for each school year. Maryland state law requires that school be in session for 180 days.

If and when there are too many snow days this school year, the schools will have to take away days from spring break, and maybe even tack on days towards the end of the year. These additional days don’t really affect the seniors because they will get out of school weeks before everyone else, but they do affect the rest of the school by impeding on much-needed breaks and the originally-scheduled end of the school year.

Instead of hoping for some extra days off from snow, students now have to worry about days being taken off a deserved break, and even days to the end of the school year. It is unfair and unnecessary especially when thinking of the old school schedule where school would begin for a few days and then be out for four days because of Labor Day. The schedule should ideally be like this, but when thinking in the long run it should have stayed how it used to be. Having only two scheduled snow days for an area that usually gets a decent amount of snow is unfortunate and unfairly affects students. Everyone deserves some of the extra from the lengthy school year.