Last Day of School is Monday, June 23 But Could Change To Friday, June 20 if OSPI Accepts MISD Waiver Request

Mercer Island, WA, February 23, 2025 – The Mercer Island School District 2024-25 academic calendar has changed after the closure of schools for three days from November 20-22 due to power outages from a wind storm and on February 5 because of snow.

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) expects that all districts make up a minimum of three days each year by either placing extra days within the calendar or at the end of the school year.

We will utilize the two Weather Make-Up Days in our 2024-25 school calendar, which means we will now have school on Friday, March 28 and Friday, May 23. Weather Make-Up Days are scheduled into the academic calendar just for this purpose, to have days for school in case we have to close schools due to inclement weather during the year. If Weather Make-Up Days are not utilized they become no school days.

Utilizing the Weather Make-Up Days helps us make up two of four days lost to the power outages and snow. To make up the other two days we will add two days to the end of the school year. The last day of school in MISD this year was going to be Wednesday, June 18 but will now be Monday, June 23. There is no school on Thursday, June 19 as it is Juneteenth, a federal holiday.

There is one variable when determining MISD’s last day of school. That variable is requesting a waiver from OSPI for Monday, June 23.

How does a waiver work? A district can submit a waiver to OSPI for either an individual school or the district as a whole to not have to make up a day lost to inclement weather. The waiver must include a good faith effort to make up as much time as possible AND demonstrate that the district can still meet the legal hours of school requirement. Remember, the State of Washington is one of a handful of states that requires both hours and number of days.

OSPI has made it very clear that they do not want any waivers filed until the threat of normal winter weather is behind us, which means we can file a waiver for Monday, June 23 in April at the earliest.

As of now, MISD will seek a waiver for Monday, June 23 before leaving for Spring Break and we hope to hear back from OSPI by the end of April. If the waiver is granted then the last day of school will be Friday, June 20.

Right now, the worst case is we have to return for the last day of school on Monday, June 23. Once we hear in late April from OSPI on our waiver request we will notify our community.

The MIHS Class of 2025 graduation is Monday, June 16 at McCaw Hall in Seattle. Upon graduation seniors have finished high school. Seniors will not have to make up any days missed past June 16.

It is possible that more days of school could be lost due to inclement weather prior to Spring Break. If we lose more days to inclement weather then we will have to add missed days to the calendar in June and reexamine waiver possibilities.  

Families can learn more about how we make the decision to close school during inclement weather on our website, which also has information on how you can confirm you will receive text messages from MISD when there are inclement weather closures.