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K-12 Dive
4 ways superintendents will address snow days post-COVID-19
The pandemic-era shift to online learning raises questions for the
future of other emergency closures, along with key takeaways to gain
buy-in.
Katie Navarra
Dec. 4, 2020
With COVID-19 upending in-person learning and acclimating schools and
students to virtual models, could snow days soon be a thing of the past?
“If we know anything, teachers and students love snow days,” said Donna
L. Wright, director of schools at Wilson County Schools in Tennessee.
Historically, Wright's district, which serves about 18,500 students,
stockpiled 13 days for inclement weather or illness. But there will be
no snow days in the district going forward when the weather
necessitates staying home.
“Time and place are irrelevant now that we can move outside the
classroom to wherever we need to be to push out instruction,” she said.
“The trade-off in our new world is that we will still stay home on an
inclement weather day, but we now have the opportunity to provide
instruction in the comfort of one’s home.”
In Illinois, school superintendents have not worried about snow days
since 2015, when legislation allowed districts to create e-learning
days that could be used instead of school cancellations for snow or
other inclement weather.
“We have not had a ‘snow day’ since 2014,” said Nick Polyak,
superintendent of Leyden School District 212 in Franklin Park,
Illinois, which serves just over 3,000 students. “Whenever the need
arises, typically three to five times per winter, we have simply
switched to e-learning on those days.”
Trading snow days for online learning days allows instruction to
continue regardless of inclement weather and can offer a more concrete
school calendar. Change isn’t easy, but the pandemic has made it
possible to try new approaches. Here’s four ways superintendents
nationwide now are approaching the prospect of snow days.
Getting buy-in from community
Eliminating snow days is a significant shift for families, teachers,
staff and students. There were many logistical questions both
internally and at the state level that needed to be addressed,
according to Polyak.
At the time, Illinois tied funding levels to student “seat time.”
Reassuring faculty that it was not an attempt to replace teachers with
technology, but rather a way to keep learning happening in new and
exciting ways, was also critical.
“We created a committee that included students, parents, teachers,
administrators, technology staff, special education staff, English
learning staff and others,” he said. “That group helped us create our
approach to best meet the needs of our students.”
Superintendents did, however, promise the unions that an e-learning day
would be declared the night before so teachers have time to prepare and
convert their in-class lessons for use online. Polyak said that can be
stressful for him, but it has helped facilitate the process.
“One positive aspect for our staff (and our community) is that the use
of e-learning days allows us to know exactly when the school year
ends,” he said. “Historically, the end date of the school year would
fluctuate based on how many snow days were used.“
Now, people are better able to plan vacations and other summer plans.
Wright also emphasized the importance of framing the conversation early
on, and doing so in a way that it isn’t about losing something that is
treasured. “It is about having school at any time during the days off
for snow, and because there is no loss of instructional days while on
remote, there is no need to worry about extending the school year to
make up the loss of school days due to snow,” she said.
Building flexible approaches
One model doesn’t work for every school or every student within a
district. Higher-needs special education students and English language
learners, for example, are populations requiring an approach tailored
to their needs to make the most of remote learning days.
In Elk River, Minnesota, Independent School District 728 traded snow
days for remote instruction this year, and Superintendent Daniel
Bittman said his focus is on personalizing e-learning for all students
and families. The school held in-person classes until Dec. 1 before
transitioning to fully remote learning through January 2021.
“So much of this comes to relationships and communication. You have to
be open about what you are planning for and be flexible to realize that
everybody has a different lens or concern,” he said. “Being willing to
modify and adjust as the situation evolves is also important.”
Flexibility is key, especially when using an asynchronous experience so learning is not happening in real time.
“This was important as we wrestled with the fact that kids might need
to help supervise younger siblings, shovel a driveway, or shoulder a
number of other responsibilities,” Polyak co-wrote in a guide offering
10 tips for successfully introducing e-learning. “The same is true of
staff members. We ask them to be generally available, but they are not
required to be at their computer all day long.”
Keeping e-learning fun
Just because learning doesn’t stop for snow days when e-learning models are implemented doesn’t mean there isn’t room for fun.
For example, when a January 2019 snowstorm converted an in-person day
to online instruction for the Leyden School District, one teacher sent
out a challenge for students to post videos of themselves creating snow
angels. Countless videos appeared on social media, including from the
assigning teacher who uploaded a video of himself participating in the
challenge.
“Ultimately, school is more than a building, it’s a collection of
learning experiences for our students,” Polyak said. “E-learning days
shouldn’t be seen as the end of snow days, but rather as an evolution
of learning possibilities.
Sticking with snow days
In upstate New York, transforming snow days into online learning
sounded promising and was a change Questar III Board of Cooperative
Educational Services Superintendent Gladys Cruz initially was willing
to embrace. Working with staff to collect and analyze data, she decided
it was impractical for the technical school, which serves 22 component
districts.
“Going remote sounded like a great idea,” she said. “However, when we
looked at the fine print, it wasn’t such a great idea. At the end of
the year, if we go over the number of contractual days staff have to
work, schools have to pay them back.”
The state requires 180 days of instruction, and schools typically plan
for six snow days. When schools closed in March 2020, annual week-long
spring breaks were canceled. At the end of the year, schools closed
earlier than scheduled to compensate for the extra days worked.
In September 2020, the New York Department of Education provided its
roughly 700 districts with the option for a one-year pilot program to
enable schools, if they want, to skip snow days and switch to remote
learning. The move would allow districts flexibility to avoid having to
make up those days later in the year to meet the requirement of having
180 school days a year.
“It has been a hard year for students and staff, who are emotionally
drained, and a snow day, if it comes, might be just what they need,”
she said.
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