School’s Still Out: Snow Days Stretch Winter Break

Of the 22 weekdays in January, students were at Jordan for a total of six full school days and two half days caused by 2-hour delays. Of the 14 days missed, four were from Winter Break, seven were from exams, and the remaining three were remote learning days. Exam week is normally dubbed “second winter break” by students, but many would argue that DPS had three winter breaks this year, instead of the typical two. 

Ice on Jordan campus

The question now is how these days off are affecting students. Falcon Post ran an Instagram poll on January 28, asking students and teachers how they felt about the remote learning days. Two-thirds of respondents said they were “loving the days off!” Virginia Masinick, a freshman, says that she loves the time off from school because she is able to sleep in and go sledding. The remaining third expressed a desire to return to school. One student, senior Lili Boccieri, says that snow days have gotten “tedious and boring after a few days stuck inside.”

Being out of the classroom may also be impacting students’ learning. Layla Vaughn, a senior in two AP classes this semester, says that “As much as I love the snow, it’s a lot easier for me to learn in a physical classroom.” She adds that not having had a full week of school in over a month has been challenging.

Ice on Jordan campus

Mr. Dail, an AP Environmental Science (APES) teacher, expressed a similar sentiment, saying that snow days are “really detrimental because it’s hard to keep moving at the pace we need to” in preparation for AP exams. 

According to state law G.S. 115C-84, schools in North Carolina are required to have 185 days of instruction within a 9-month period. Of those 185 days, schools may have up to five remote instruction days, and fifteen in extreme cases. Thus far, DPS has used up four of those five days. After the two most recent weather events, many superintendents throughout the state have requested extra remote days, in case more winter weather comes our way. This is to prevent the potential to take away spring break or add on days to the end of the school year, since technically, schools are only required to have 10 days of break, aside from federal holidays, per year. However, the school year is not allowed to end after June 11, meaning that only two more days could be added on. There is also an option for Saturday instruction to make up for missed days, if necessary. 

Ice on Jordan campus