As you know, last week was the first snow day of the school year. Though it's great to see snow on the ground so early in the season, I want to make sure you are aware of the limitations in this year's school calendar with respect to weather-related cancellations.
Most school years include an allowance of three days for weather cancellations that can be made up at the end of the school year in June. However, due to starting after Labor Day and the two-week break in December, this year's calendar only allows for two traditional cancellations. Beginning with the third weather day and beyond, it will revert to a remote learning day, which we have not encountered for at least a couple of years now. In order to be prepared for this potential scenario, please note the following procedures that apply to all schools/grade spans:
- All school buildings are closed for the day and all on-site school-related events and activities are cancelled for the day/afternoon/evening of the closure.
- All students will have access to concurrent learning activities. Concurrent learning is when there are live instruction/direction/class meetings for students provided by the teacher for at least part of the school day. Each school will provide more specific details prior to the first remote learning day.
- Students are considered to be ‘in attendance’ when they have virtually attended the required concurrent learning activities (instruction, check-ins) offered by the teacher.
- Remote learning days for this purpose will follow this abbreviated schedule:
- Grades 6-12: 7:50 AM-11:35 AM
- Grades PK-5: 8:50 AM-12:35 PM
In the rare event of questionable conditions when a remote learning day cannot occur for whatever reason (broad power outages, etc), the school district reserves the ability to revert to a traditional weather cancellation day if needed, even after the first two traditional weather days have been used already. If this occurs, please keep in mind that the school year would then extend beyond the June 19 Juneteenth holiday and would require that additional school days be added, as applicable, to the week of June 22. As we know that late June is not the most productive learning time, efforts will be made to avoid this if at all possible, but I wanted to be up front that this could occur.