March 27, 2023 by Maggie Trautner (‘25)
March 14th of this year marked the first official day of remote learning instruction taking the place of a snow day for grades 6-12. New York State schools are required to have a minimum of 180 days of teaching, including regular instructional days, two-hour delays, and virtual learning days. As a result, in a supposed effort to more efficiently reach our required school days per year, the Saratoga Springs City School District (SSCSD) administration has decided that there should be a designated number of snow days for each school year. If we surpass that number, we move to a remote learning day. Students are expected to log into all their usual classes for the day through Zoom links their teachers provide on Canvas.
After the global pandemic of Covid that started about three years ago in 2020, and the school closures it caused, many members of the school community don’t want to go back in time. For about a year and a half, the school was either virtual or hybrid (a mix of virtual and in-person). This forced both students and teachers to spend an excessive amount of time on screens, alone, and overall isolated. According to John Hopkins doctor Jennifer Katzenstein, you should, “stick to two hours or less of screen time a day.” How are students supposed to even be close to limiting their screen time when they are expected to participate in a six-hour school day at home? Especially after the pandemic, remote learning is less desirable than ever.
As of now, we still get a certain number of actual snow days in which the school does not operate, virtually or otherwise–the school is truly closed. With this new plan of moving to remote learning after the set number of days, the question if snow days will disappear altogether is also prevalent. The importance of mental health is coming into light with increasing research following the pandemic. Taking a break can improve your mental health and give you that push you need to get through a tough week. In winter, it can be hard to stay motivated due to several factors including, but not limited to, seasonal depression. An unexpected day off could be just the thing to make your week.
Students are not the only people majorly affected by the implementation of virtual days instead of a free day off. Teachers are, as always, expected to be extremely flexible and change their entire lesson plan on the same day. A switch to remote means a long day full of Zoom calls to students in no mood to learn and, overall, more work. Instead of getting the break they’ve earned, the work is piled on for the school staff.
Another factor to take into consideration is the disappointment of waking up, finding out it’s a snow day, and then having it dawn on you that you still must do schoolwork and log on to meetings. Many students participate in sports, clubs, or have jobs outside of school and snow days are a nice break for them. Taking this hope and exciting feeling away from students may result in decreased work ethic and less enthusiasm toward their education. Upstate New York is not known for its mild winters, and it is very likely the scheduled snow days will be reached and a virtual day will happen. While this plan helps with not missing school, students are missing out on other snow day traditions. Instead of getting outside in the snow or catching up on sleep and being with family, the school community is by their computers.
And the more “practical” problems are prevalent, too. A snow day is called by the superintendent because of bad weather. The roads are unsafe to transport students to school, and the conditions are bad. It is not unlikely that students and teachers alike will lose power. Remote learning progresses from difficult, to virtually impossible if a teacher loses power. Students cannot log on to their classes, and struggle to participate and get credit for school on that given day. Based on all these issues with virtual learning, the idea of putting remote learning days in place of snow days is simply not worth the trouble it causes.