WESTFIELD – The Blizzard Bag, or Alternative Structured Learning Days survey ended on Friday evening and the results were overwhelmingly in favor of implementing a pilot program in Westfield.
Westfield Public Schools Superintendent Stefan Czaporowski reported the results of the survey to the School Committee at Monday’s meeting. He said that 941 parents and 373 staff responded to the survey, which School Committee member Kevin Sullivan called a healthy sample. Overall, 82% of parents either strongly agreed or agreed with the program, and 78% of staff strongly agreed or agreed. The survey results will be posted on the district website at www.schoolsofwestfield.org Tuesday.
In Westfield’s program, there are five snow days built into the calendar. For the first five snow days, no student assignments would be given. The Blizzard Bags would go into effect on snow days 6, 7, and 8. On these days, students would be asked to work on one of a series of linked, interdisciplinary projects that they would continue in school, and ultimately turn in by June. If the plan is adopted, the last possible day of school in 2018 would be on June 21. Last year, Westfield called 8 snow days, and the last day of school was June 28.
Czaporowski told the School Committee that he would like to move forward with the pilot with their approval, starting on day 6.
Mayor Brian P. Sullivan commented that over the last five or six years, only two years have had more than five snow days. Czaporowski said the most popular comment in the survey was a request to start on the first snow day. However, he said other districts have been contacting him about adopting the program, and thought Westfield’s plan to start on the 6th day was a good one. He also said that Burlington, MA did a pilot last year that began on the first snow day, and this year will begin on the third snow day.
School Committee member William Duval said he thought it was a “great idea,” but was interested in how the district is going to evaluate “which kids it worked for, and which kids it didn’t work for.” Czaporowski said the projects done during the ALSD days will continue into the classroom, where teachers will be able to evaluate the program’s effectiveness.
The School Committee then voted to begin the pilot program on the sixth snow day.
