Last Monday morning at North Creek dawned with a raw, February-gray sky. Roads were glazed over with ice, lined with candy-frosted trees. A continuous rain of wet, heavy snow piled in the gutters. Some students had lingered in their cars at the student parking lot, steeling themselves to brave the treacherous, icy walkways.
Just the night before, an urgent email titled ‘Important Message’ popped into everyone’s inboxes, stating that the school would start two hours late due to the overnight freezing conditions. The flash freeze would affect the entire week, with school getting delayed on Tuesday and Friday and cancelled entirely for Wednesday and Thursday, throwing classes, and, most importantly, the school calendar, into jeopardy. School was originally planned to end on June 17th, but the bomb cyclone in November pushed the schedule back a couple days along with the snow, and the temperature is only forecasted to keep dropping. At this rate, school may not get out until the end of June or even the beginning of July, leaving only two months for summer.
So what other alternatives do we have to make up snow days? There aren’t many options, but online school is one of them. Seattle Public Schools have already replaced lost days with remote learning, something that students and parents alike are not excited about. Online school can be a pain, especially when attendance is sparse. For elementary school students, many of them have working parents that may not be at home to oversee them.
Another option may be longer Wednesdays. The early release is provided so that teachers can grade and prep for classes, and students can study and do homework, but to make up the four days in total that we lost, we would have to have full length Wednesdays for at least a few weeks. Is this worth it? Maybe. If this were the solution, we would be able to enjoy our snow break and make up the hours instead of sitting in front of a screen, but it would come at the expense of study and prep time.
Longer Wednesdays and online school are not perfect answers, but they may be worth it to endure, as they will prevent the snow days from dragging out all the way into July. For now, students and teachers will just have to wait for the ice to melt and hope that another blizzard doesn’t rip a bigger gap in our school calendar.
