On Tuesday, April 24, there will be a meeting with the Maryland State Board of Education and the Howard County Board of Education to decide on when the last day of school will be; either the current date will be kept, or it will be moved to earlier in the month. The decision will be announced on the following Wednesday, April 25.

The current last day is scheduled for Monday, June 11, one day after the original date of June 8. The extra day was added after school was closed on what was supposed to be the first day of the school year, August 29. The closing was due to power outages caused by Hurricane Irene. If the date is moved, the last day will be on the original date, June 8.

Changing the date from June 11 to June 8 will end the school year on a Friday instead of a Monday, something many students are hoping for. The last day of school, regardless of the date, is a half-day, and many people find going back after the weekend for a little over four hours to be pointless.

Among the students opposed to going back for one last Monday is sophomore Wendy Zhang. “I don’t want to have a weekend and then go to school and it’s a half-day.”

If the last day is moved to June 8, Howard County will be the fourth school system in Maryland that is released for the summer, behind the systems of Allegany, which lets out on June 1, Garrett, on May 30, and Talbot, June 7. The systems of Caroline, Cecil, Prince George’s, and Wicomico were also all scheduled to let out on June 8.