After an initial review by the school committee and staff, we are moving forward the idea of implementing “Blizzard Bags” for approval by the school committee and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). “Blizzard Bags” are a way of assigning work to students to make up days that school is cancelled for reasons such as inclement weather. While the state mandates that students attend school for 180 days, DESE has allowed “Snow Bag” exceptions to this rule if high quality work can be accomplished during cancellations. This has been implemented in several states (Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio) and under different operational models. As a K-12 system divided into elementary, middle, and high schools, we are creating a model that is flexible within the district, within schools, and even within grades. Our hope is that these learning activities will not only meet the DESE ‘structured learning time’ test but will also be educationally relevant. Students, parents, and staff members can probably agree that making instruction relevant, engaging students, and sustaining high levels of attendance in late June is difficult at best.
We are also exploring ways to leverage the technology that both the schools and our communities provide to extend learning while being cognizant of the lack of broadband in many areas within our district, meaning that teachers will have to plan for both online and paper/pencil assignments for these alternative learning days.
The reason to explore this option is that we have averaged 5.4 cancellations per year over the last twelve years. In one instance, we lost the majority of school days in December due to an ice storm and the related damage to utilities and blocked roads. We believe that having students complete work during the year rather than adding days to the end of the year provides the following benefits:
- A better flow of instruction focused on curriculum when students continue to be engaged in the subject on a timely basis (i.e., reducing or eliminating interruptions of the lesson material due to missing one or more days in a week due to school cancellations);
- The curriculum is more likely to be covered prior to state standardized testing;
- For students in AP courses, coverage of material is more likely to occur before the mandated testing dates;
- Students will have the opportunity to implement time management skills and become more experienced with self-directed academic pursuits, which are becoming such an integral part of both the workplace and college experience;
- For elementary students this is an opportunity to provide parents with additional 1to1 time, to see what their children are learning in school, and to share their own experiences around those topics;
- Provides a learning opportunity to experience independent, hands-on, experiential learning further setting the stage for lifelong learning;
- Provides the opportunity to further extend and blend learning beyond the walls of the GRSD.
- Potentially saves the district a minimum of $5,000 per day that we ‘make up’ using ‘Blizzard Bags’
We hope to be able to implement these “Alternative Learning Days” during this school year and then evaluate the success of the program at the end of the year to determine whether or not we should continue the program and how we might improve upon it. As we consider, implement, and evaluate this possibility we will be looking for input from students, staff and families. The School Committee will consider approval at their next meeting on Wednesday, November 9 at Gateway (rooms 112/114 in the middle school). We will also be keeping everyone informed as we move forward, through this column and articles in local newspapers and our weekly e-newsletter, Breaking News.
