Pandemic Snow Days

 Anatomy of a pandemic, virtual learning, old fashioned snow day decision 

On Thursday afternoon the storm of the year arrived in our area. It brought with it lots of snowing, blowing, and cold. 

In the old world of education, kids and teachers traditionally have loved the occasional snow day. Heck, I bet principals and superintendents probably don’t mind them, as well. So last night as the weather continued getting worse, many schools were closing down for Friday. I was on the way home when a text thread with superintendents really heated up. I checked the messages and saw that many were closing. I thought, “I’m with you, but being virtual we really can’t have a snow day.” 

Then, my daughter Amber called and we were talking about a number of things. I told her the snow day situation and she said, “Well, why can’t you have a snow day?” We talked about it for a few minutes. And I pondered some thoughts:

• We are in the middle of a pandemic. Students in our district have been learning remotely all year, and they’re working hard. Teachers have learned a whole new teaching style, as well. In essence, they all have been working harder than they work in normal in–person learning. And differently. While I’ve had many students tell me they think a lot of the technology they’re using is “cool,” I still know the new world of teaching and learning is difficult. So, thinking about everyone’s mental well–being, would it really hurt to have a snow day when most of the state is closing down? 

• The weather looks like it could be a doozy. I had teachers contact me with concerns that in the past in weather like this they have lost electricity. “Rick, what am I going to do if I can’t login and teach?” This, of course, is unintended consequence #42 of pandemic teaching and learning. If you are remote and lose power, how do you teach. So, the principals asked the teachers to prepare some asynchronous learning and post it ahead of time, just in case classes couldn’t be held. As our team has engaged with Dr. Dominique Smith on the idea of equity for several months this year, this was shaping up to possibly be an inequitable day. Of course, we can overcome something like that, but, again — we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Things are different right now. 

• In the future, we might see the elimination of snow days because so many schools have proved that they can be successful in a remote environment. We are not there yet; however, it could happen in the future. Living in the remote world for the past several months, though, we know that there are still pockets of people who cannot get high speed internet despite everyone’s best efforts. Did you know that a MIFI device does not work well where you cannot get cell service or if you have a metal roof? So, it’s not the automatic no–brainer that we all wish it were …

Ah, decisions. Challenging decisions. 

I called our Associate Superintendent and talked to him about the thought I had about possibly closing. I told him that I knew the thought was out there, but we talked through the bullet points above. We agreed that it might make sense, especially with the weather we were already experiencing, so then I called our Board President and talked with her about it. She had a great idea about encouraging families to focus on physical fitness. I told her I would put the plan together but we were going to close on Friday. I called our partners who we work with every day. I called my principals and the teacher’s union president. I told them all that I didn’t think we would probably have a lot of snow days, but this one made sense. No one disagreed, but I won’t say that there weren’t some thoughts that Rick had lost his mind. 

It’s not easy being a leader is these insanely crazy times. We spend a lot of time talking about things we’ve never talked about (e.g. setting up vaccine clinics, estimating how many masks we might need on an annual basis, determining the feasibility of brand new devices with quick turnaround professional development … etc.) while still trying to continue forward with teaching and learning! We can’t forget the importance of building curriculum and supporting materials and instruction, but … we can’t do that if we haven’t covered all of the Covid–19 details to safely reopen school. I’m proud of our Board of Education, leadership team, teaching staff, parapros, food service staff, support staff, custodians, transportation staff, and all of our partners. We have had amazing discussions and communications regarding the pandemic, but we have also kept a focus on teaching and learning, though it may be different. 

And then it snowed.