Howard County Public School System students will see small but noticeable changes to the 2025–2026 school calendar after recent adjustments by the Board of Education. Beginning May 4th, high school students started their day two minutes earlier at 7:48 a.m. Additionally, June 8th, which was originally scheduled as a three-hour early dismissal, will now be a full school day. While these changes may seem minor, they are part of a larger effort to make up lost instructional time from earlier in the school year.
The adjustments come after a two-hour delay on March 3rd and a three-hour early dismissal on March 16th created a total four-hour deficit in required instructional time. Maryland requires high schools to meet 180 days and have 1,170 hours of instruction each year, and district officials say these changes are the least disruptive way to meet that requirement.
Junior at Wilde Lake, Malaika Ababio, transports to school on a bus. She states that “As a bus rider, the time change hasn’t really impacted me. My bus comes early at its normal time, but what’s really impacted me is the time before class. I would go somewhere before my first period so I could get a mental break before class, so now it feels like I have a little less time.”
Students may now feel more pressured to get to class on time or have less to do things before 1st period starts.
Principal at Wilde Lake, Mr. Brown states “It hasn’t really affected us too much. We’re pretty much kind of business as usual. It is a little bit different for our secretaries that usually help with intake for students coming late. But, they are here early anyway, so it’s not like a huge difference for them.” He also adds that “I think the school district wanted it to have a minimal impact, and I think that’s what it ended up being.”
So far at Wilde Lake, the school start time change has not been a significant interruption to staff, students, and administration.
Assistant principal at Wilde Lake, Dr. Dobs stated that the adjusted time does not affect those students who transport to school by bus. The school start time change “really has no effect on transportation. The Office of Transportation worked with the same system to keep things running the same way in order to not make adjustments.”
On a daily basis, the buses do typically arrive at school on time, even prior to the adjusted start time. Dr. Dobs adds, “And if, on any given day, a bus runs late, we’re able to communicate that with staff and students don’t get marked late.
Although the start time may seem like an interruption so late into the school year, this minimal initiative will help make up for instructional time so that we may finish the school year no later than June 18th, 2026.