By Matt de Simone
Earlier this year, the state legislature passed a bill that allows statewide public school systems to schedule remote learning days if schools are closed due to inclement weather.
While this new law doesn’t eliminate the joys of snow days for students (and teachers), it could become beneficial for the county to consider.
Last school year, Botetourt County Public Schools (BCPS) remained under “COVID protocols” until March. BCPS gave students the option to stay remote or go back to their respective school’s classrooms. When school systems across the country continued to pivot through the pandemic, thinking outside of the box became a new norm for many school boards.
“BCPS used this option a couple of times this past year,” BCPS Superintendent Dr. John Russ recently stated when asked about the option. “When that happened, we gave parents and teachers as much notice as possible and will do the same in the future. We plan a close to ‘normal’ return for the 2021-2022 school year (all students five days/week). I’m inclined to say that reclassifying ‘snow days’ as ‘remote learning days’ will not be very often.
“Besides the BCPS Virtual Academy, we do not plan to have students that are ‘remote learners,'” Russ continued. “This past year offered a very smooth transition to make ‘snow days’ a ‘remote learning day’ because we were already in virtual learning mode much of the year anyway. Now, having said all that, I’ve learned to never say never and to be flexible. With this new Delta variant, we truly don’t know how the school year will play out. I’m leaving all options open.”
This legislation was a joint recommendation from Salem City Schools and Montgomery County Public Schools presented in November of 2020, according to Virginia Delegate Joseph McNamara of the 8th district.
McNamara introduced the House of Delegates version of the bill because he believed this would be an innovative way to help local school divisions in danger of missing 180 instructional days. Virginia Senator David Suetterlein introduced the Senate version.