Snow Days

Carroll County scheduled a rare Good Friday school day yesterday to make up class time lost to snow. The result: thousands of student absences, hundreds of teachers taking personal days, quiet cafeterias, empty buses, still hallways, idle custodians and bragging rights - albeit temporary - on teacher-to-student ratios. "We have the best ratios in the state right now," Assistant Superintendent Stephen Guthrie quipped. "They are 1-to-0 in some classes." Carroll and Talbot County were the only Maryland school districts to schedule classes yesterday to make up for snow days.

Did Sheila Dixon leave Baltimore in better shape than before she became mayor? Yes 26% No 64% Not sure 10% (1,322 votes, results not scientific) Next poll: : Do Baltimore-area school districts have too many snow days? Vote at baltimoresun.com/vote

Baltimore County schools will close for the summer at the end of the day June 6, a week earlier than planned, because the district didn't use all of its scheduled snow days. The school board approved the change last night.After last year's snowy winter forced the district to schedule extra days -- ruining family plans for Presidents Day and Memorial Day holidays -- the board built eight snow days into this year's calendar, allowing for a reduction of up to five days if snow didn't fall.Only one day was needed, Jan. 9, though schools opened late Feb. 14. The Hereford zone opened late Jan. 16.High school students will be released early June 3-6; elementary and middle schools will close early June 5-6. Teachers at all levels will work full days.

National Weather Service forecaster Andy Woodcock said he never promised Baltimore area residents a snowy Sunday. "It was a snow advisory," Woodcock said. "So we weren't forecasting anything major, only 2 to 4 inches." Woodcock said no snow is in the forecast until Wednesday -- maybe, he stressed. "Right now, on Wednesday, it looks like the storm is going to go out to sea," he said. "My guess is that there will be a chance of snow." As for yesterday, a low-pressure system that produced several inches of snow in Tennessee was moving toward Virginia on Saturday, he said, giving areas south of Washington a better chance of snow than points north, such as Baltimore.

The trouble with working at home by modem is they don't give you snow days.At least we no longer have to remember how to spell Mitterrand.If Volvo wants to assemble cars in this country, why doesn't someone tell them how close Canton is to where the ships dock with the auto parts?Cheer up: February is on the way.

Despite taking 11 snow days this winter, public schools in Baltimore County will close just one day later than scheduled, on June 20. The school system had built seven snow days into the school calendar, and the State Board of Education waived three more, leaving one day to make up. Administrators said the district was the only one in the Baltimore area to get a third day waived, an action approved by the state board Tuesday. School system officials said the state board waived a third day because the district had built so many snow days into the school year.

Scrambling to find ways to make up five snow days and concerned that more wintry weather might be on the way, Carroll County officials have asked the state schools superintendent to allow them to shorten the school year and open schools on remaining state holidays. School board members will not decide until the middle of the month or next month how to make up snow days beyond the four that were built into the school calendar. But they have agreed to ask Maryland Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick for every available option and weigh them later.

Scrambling to find ways to make up five snow days and concerned that more wintry weather might be on the way, Carroll County officials have asked the state schools superintendent to allow them to shorten the school year and open schools on remaining state holidays. School board members will not decide until the middle of the month or next month how to make up snow days beyond the four that were built into the school calendar. But they have agreed to ask Maryland Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick for every available option and weigh them later.

Climatologists have been warning us that the past four or five winters have been uncharacteristically mild. Now we understand what they were talking about.Since the start of this new year, successive days of snow, sleet, freezing rain and frigid temperatures have made a shambles of the Carroll County Board of Education calendar. Bad weather had closed Carroll's schools for four days through yesterday and shortened them on at least two others. The number of snow days built into the calendar has been exhausted, which means the school year must be extended to meet the state mandate of 180 school days unless the county receives a waiver from the state.

Public schools in Central Maryland remained closed today as the region continues to dig out from last weekend's blizzard and prepares for another major snowstorm with the potential to keep students from class for the remainder of the week. Schools in Baltimore City and Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties canceled classes Tuesday, as did most counties around the state, from Prince George's to Worcester to Frederick. Forecasters are expecting significant snowfall for the Baltimore area tonight into Wednesday, with some predicting up to 20 inches.