Endangered in 2020: Snow days
The hits keep on coming in 2020, and this time, it’s kids who are bearing the brunt of bad news: there may be no more snow days on the horizon thanks to remote learning in Massachusetts.
Schools district superintendents are preemptively replacing snow days with regular weekdays in front of the laptop as a storm bears down on Massachusetts this week, threatening to dump over a foot in the Boston area Thursday.
Brookline public schools Interim Superintendent Jim Marini sent parents a letter declaring the district will pivot to remote learning on snow days this winter, as temporarily sanctioned by the Massachusetts Education Commissioner for the 2020-21 school year.
Marini will release students early on snow days “to enable families to enjoy some of the fun and excitement of a traditional New England snow day,” he wrote.
Wednesday afternoon, Boston Public Schools announced Thursday wouldn’t be a snow day: like Brookline, kids must be present in front of their screens for a half-day of instruction.
One factor could drive kids out to the sledding hill is widespread power outages. But if a teacher loses power in a storm, Milton Public Schools expects them to provide a ‘independent work’ for students in Google classroom, as a backup measure, according to a statement from the school system.
Replacing snow days with remote learning will save schools the hassle of tacking extra days onto the school year in late spring, but Hingham parent Sonia Steele says her kids will treat Thursday as a traditional snow day – despite a message from the superintendent that the town’s schools will be open remotely.
“They’re getting a snow day tomorrow. Our main priority is that they build a snowman and drink hot cocoa,” said Steele, whose two children attend Foster Elementary School.
Snow days aren’t just a treat for kids, Steele said, parents like her — stuck working at home in the pandemic — need the break, too.
“The kids are small enough that they’re not hands-off when here remote learning,” she said. “A snow day is almost easier for a working parent because they can do whatever they want.”
Cameron, a public school teacher in a Boston suburb, said teachers like him would welcome a traditional snow day as well.
“We are making things perhaps more difficult,” Cameron said, who refrained from publicly sharing his last name because of his job. “It’s a little reprise, a snow day, and instead of leaning into that we’re denying students and teachers that little bit of fun.”
At least three districts in the state, Hopkinton, Plymouth, and New Bedford, told parents their students would have a traditional snow day Thursday.
Steele said she was concerned the widespread pivot to remote learning this season will set precedent for winters to come.
“We can’t lose snow days,” she said. “There’s just something magical about a snow day.”