Last year we sent out a survey to determine how we would make up our snow days. The results were fairly split between making them up at the end of the year, trying online days to make them up, or working with a Saturday schedule. Ultimately it was difficult to find online days on which to schedule our makeup days and we decided to use our built-in snow days along with additional days at the end of the year.
One challenge with this is that instruction is missed in the middle of the units and prior to state assessments. Extending the school year did allow us to cover the necessary content, but not necessarily in the instructional timeframe that had been designed.
This year the Indiana Department of Education has once again put out guidance for inclement weather days--including the possibility of utilizing online days on the day of a snow day. While this would be extremely challenging if the weather system was unexpected--if one knows the day before that there is that potential than the district can make sure to prepare.
We are just beginning to discuss this idea as a staff, and have many things to work through. What would instruction look like for all students? How will teachers be available to students? How will learning targets for the day be delivered? There are many questions left to answer. PTSC is currently working with a group of other districts to learn from what they are doing. There are many districts who utilized the flexibility provided last year, and two districts conducted online days on an actual snow day and were successful.
We will keep you informed as this idea progresses--but as we have seen with the shift in the weather--the snow will be here before we know it!