District exploring virtual learning for future snow days
By Jazmine Knight
Snow days usually mean students can turn off their alarm clocks and enjoy a day off from school, but that could change in the future, thanks to virtual learning options.
While these plans wouldn’t go into effect anytime this school year, the St. Joseph School District is considering utilizing a virtual model for future inclement weather school closings. This change would follow in the footsteps of many Kansas City metro school districts that also move to an online format for snow days.
“Kids love their snow days. I think adults love their snow days sometimes, too. So we still want to provide the traditional snow day for some of our kids. But we also understand that it gets to a point where kids need to be in school, they need to continue their learning,” said Ashly McGinnis, assistant superintendent of academic services. “We do have an AMI (alternative methods of instruction) plan. We just have not implemented that yet.”
The push for virtual options stems from the required 1,044 hours of learning instruction for Missouri schools. Currently, the St. Joseph School District is on track to end with 1,092 hours, assuming they don’t have another snow day. Even though it isn’t a huge concern now, the district is just looking out for the future.
Oftentimes, school isn’t just canceled because of high snow. Other factors can play a role as well.
“I talk to the location manager at First Student, the bus company. And … you get an idea of what his comfort level is of getting buses out on the streets,” said Shannon Nolte, director of non-academic student services. He went on to explain how sometimes buses won’t even start, causing an unreliable mode of transportation for students.
From there, Nolte monitors the weather and speaks with the director of maintenance and operations to get the status of school sidewalks and roadways. Then he can make a decision regarding school cancellations.
One concern about switching to virtual learning for snow days is keeping the students on task. However, McGinnis has a plan for that as well. They hope to keep instruction time short, around 15-20 minutes, to reduce stress on children that have multiple classes.
“Virtual learning is very challenging to engage students, and so I think it’s important for our lessons to be relevant, to provide student choice for them to be engaging. And so that’s our plan,” McGinnis said.
