Start The School Year In The District Of Columbia

School system must recover from scandals and get a new Chancellor of EducationIn the Metropolitan area of Washington, DC is the school system that starts its classes before Labor Day, which marks the unofficial end of the summer season. 

Photo: CourtesyJossmar Castillo Washinton HispanicThe students of the District of Columbia are saying goodbye to their summer vacations, since this August 20 they embark once again in a new academic year under uncertainty if this year will be better than the previous one.

And with all the difficulties that the system faced last year, first with the news that Ballou High School students and other institutions were graduating from high school with a considerable number of absences, and staying months later without a Chancellor of Education when Antwan Wilson was forced to resign for abusing his position to benefit his daughter.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser is still on the national hunt for a replacement while Amanda Alexander continues in the interim position. Last June Bowser announced the creation of the “Leadership Committee of Our Schools”, which will evaluate candidates to run the school system that has more than 50 thousand students. For this year, the District will continue with its program in which students can travel for free in the city’s transportation system, as long as they have the SmarTrip card. 

During the summer the DC Public Schools (DCPS) has carried out several activities to distribute the cards to the enrolled students. They indicated that those who do not have theirs yet, should contact each other during the first days of school.

While Washington begins classes in August, the state of Maryland and several Virginia school systems begin the school year after Labor Day, which is considered the day that, unofficially, concludes the summer season.

Although systems like Montgomery’s have requested that they be allowed to start classes in August to have more days of instruction, but Maryland Governor Larry Hogan is the one who controls the school calendar and left it as it is to boost the economy in places like Ocean City, Maryland.