On Monday Oct. 26, students and staff of PV witnessed another snow flurry, prompting many to contemplate how snow days will work with the hybrid schedule.
For the past two years, snow storms, especially in January, have been devastating, causing districts across the state to close their schools for the day and make up for it at the end of the year. This would allow them to still accomplish the set number of in-school learning hours for students. Since the hybrid schedule requires that schools attain a certain number of required hours, the possibility of a snow day complicates this.”
Due to challenges posed by the pandemic, schools are to have at least 1080 hours of instruction, but with districts having to conduct 50 percent in person. This left administrators, such as PV Superintendent Brian Strusz, with a complex situation to explore solutions for. “With the Governor’s July 17th proclamation allowing a school district to temporarily move to online learning because of severe weather instead of taking a snow day, we are exploring this as a possible option,” commented Superintendent Brian Strusz.
With Governor Kim Reynolds having made weather related disruptions exempt if students participate in online schooling, students are glad not to have these days tacked on to the end of the school year.
Nevertheless, students, like senior Ella Litchfield, feel that abruptly switching to an online schedule could cause hardships and disruptions. “If we began online school tomorrow then I would not feel prepared at all. Online schooling is beneficial for self-taught learners only. I don’t feel that I would receive the same amount of information.”
The sudden switch to online schooling could also be detrimental to younger kids. While online schooling worked for them during March, the immediate switch proved to be too much to handle for these children. In many classes, teachers have different schedules for each group of students, and combining all three on one day can be chaotic. For example, math teacher Erik Belby has to tend to three different groups of students: Hybrid A, Hybrid B, and the online students while keeping up with a rigorous AP curriculum.
Much of this year has required all individuals to be flexible, and the incoming winter is just another obstacle for the district to overcome.
