As the new semester begins, the harsh winter elements quickly follow. School systems put numerous precautions in place to ensure that, despite whatever conditions come our way, students are still in a position to learn and continue with the curriculum to prevent falling behind in the school year. Recently, at Woodford County High School, an ice storm kept students and staff out of school for an entire week, including three snow days and two NTI (non-traditional learning) days. Admittedly, there’s no better news for a student than getting that automated phone call and text alerting students that a snow day awaits. However, what seems like a bundle of great news can actually turn out to have a catch.
School systems are required to meet a certain number of instructional hours in a year. When we have snow days, the eight hours we would’ve made for that day are completely out the window. Over the course of our three-peat snow day extravaganza, we lost 24 hours of instructional time that we will have to make up to ensure we don’t have to add days to the school year. A general scenario in which schools will take days previously scheduled off and turn them into regular school days to make up for the loss. This is where we see holidays like Presidents Day, which we originally had off, now becoming a regular school day.
While there are many solutions to having snow days, some unorthodox procedures that Woodford County students could be susceptible to facing are adding 15 more minutes to each school day to make up for lost time, the eight-class schedule that we saw more recently before the storm hit, and the most avoided one, simply adding more days to the calendar posing the threat of increasing the duration of the school year into June.
Hopefully, the weather will begin to warm up soon, and students will be able to get back in school, preventing the addition of any unwanted procedures to mitigate the losses from snow days. While many students, including myself, are some of the biggest supporters of snow days, it’s important to remember that there’s always a catch. Hopefully, we can continue to enjoy the snow days and stay at home without having to sacrifice too much time in the future!
