Hold the invitation to neighborhood sledding and snowball fights when schools are closed in Montgomery County, Maryland.
The Montgomery County Board of Education adopted a policy that will allow the school system to call for a shift to virtual instruction instead of canceling classes for snow days.
The policy is effective immediately and will cover the rest of the school year.
The vote was 7-0 with student member of the board Hana O’Looney casting the lone vote in opposition.
O’Looney objected on several fronts.
She told the board members that there should have been more opportunity for student input. “I feel like we’re kind of talking about students and how they feel without ever making an effort to include them,” O’Looney said.
O’Looney told the board members that she conducted an online poll of 4,000 students and talked to a number of staff members about the policy.
“There’s a lot more interest from students in extending the school year than getting rid of inclement weather days,” O’Looney said.
The current school year has seen struggles with staffing, both in the classroom and at bus depots across the county. O’Looney said students, as well as staff, have been feeling the strain of the challenges of the current academic year.
“Students aren’t machines,” O’Looney said. “The pressure on students to close those learning gaps and to get back in the classroom, and for teachers to make good progress has been enormous.”
She added, “This is the same school system that talked about adding three additional half days to this year school calendar, because we recognize the increased workload that has been put on staff and students this year. And it sort of feels like doing this as walking back on that commitment to mental health.”
O’Looney wasn’t the only one to speak up in favor of keeping traditional school closures due to inclement weather.
“I always have been a big supporter of snow days,” Board member Rebecca Smondrowski said. “It’s because it’s a good mental health break for our students, our staff.” But when the vote was taken, Smondrowski voted along with the majority of the board.
School Board Vice President Karla Silvestre didn’t dismiss the benefits of snow days.
“We all know that we need them and enjoy them,” but Silvestre said closing for inclement weather and then tacking makeup days to the end of the year had negatives, as well.
“Instructional days are not created equal,” Silvestre said. “They are not as meaningful at the end of the school year” as they are earlier in the year.
Board member Shebra Evans said that the school system already has to make up snow days due to weather-related closures last month.
“We don’t want to extend the school year if we don’t have to, and if having those virtual days will help us, then that’s what I want us to be able to do,” Evans said.
Under the plan to shift to virtual learning during inclement weather, schools would make an effort to give as much lead time as possible to students and staff, with a “get ready” message to families when a weather forecast indicates school closures are likely.
There would also be plans designed to provide meals to students to take home when it’s likely schools would close the next day.
Tech support would also be available in a number of forms, even on a snow day, according to Kara Trenkamp, the school system’s director of the Office of Technology Integration and Support.
Depending on the weather conditions, any help needed with online access or equipment problems could be handled at a student’s local school.
“Of course, we don’t want to put our staff in harm’s way to travel unnecessarily,” but she said a student’s local school is often the closest and easiest way for students to get help with a device that’s failing or another technical issue.
“And so we want to make sure that is an option,” Trenkamp said.
Snow days could still exist, said Interim school Superintendent Dr. Monifa McKnight, and she stressed the decision to either shift to virtual learning or cancel classes would be made on a case-by-case basis.
“It really depends on every single weather circumstance,” McKnight said. “We’ve said from the beginning that we’re going to learn, adjust and adapt.”
