As the weather starts to get warmer and the school year comes to an end, many wonder what the future years will look like for schools. 

This past year, Dallastown students have had many pandemic related challenges,  but also, challenges that Mother Nature has thrown their way. 

This year, DASD decided to try something new on snow days. 

They chose to go virtual so the snow days wouldn’t have to be made up at the end of the year. 

How virtual instruction on snow days came to be

DASD Superintendent, Dr.Doll says “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the District had the ability to do virtual snow days, however, we did not have the systems in place to be able to easily transition from in-person to virtual learning at a moments notice.” 

The K-3 grades also made things especially hard as before COVID they didn’t have personalized computers. 

“With limited access to technology, the District would not be able to offer interactive learning opportunities to students in grades K-3.” Doll explains. 

Surrounding school districts in York County previously offered virtual instruction days before the pandemic, while other school districts adapted and are now able to offer an alternative to the traditional snow day to their students and families.

These school districts were able to implement these virtual instruction days once COVID hit in March 2020.

That is because the state of Pennsylvania went under a state emergency in September 2020 and signed a contract allowing unlimited flexible instructional days for school districts across the state. 

Doll says this contract “was kind of an emergency resolution from the state, that we passed in the fall as a board and this allows us total flexibility. This has now been extended for the 2021-22 school year.” 

The total flexibility gave Dallastown the option for Wildcat Wednesdays, school shut down virtual instruction, and most importantly, snow day virtual instruction days. 

Are virtual snow days staying?

The District received a notification from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, that this contract has been extended to include the 2021-22 school year.

Meaning that the District will again next year find a balance between virtual instruction days and traditional snow days.

Doll says he enjoys the opportunity to go virtual, it gives the school district more flexibility, a more set-in-stone school calendar, and the teachers more planning time as many have students in person and over zoom. 

“Overall, it’s been a lot more fluid as teachers are able to continue their plans by just readjusting and reformulating and that’s what I love about it.”

Student and community feelings

Virtual snow days have been a touchy topic across the district with almost a 50/50 split on if they hate them or love them.

According to a poll posted on The Beacon Instagram, 60 out of 102 people voted for hating virtual snow days.

Doll says even though the majority of students dislike virtual snow days he has still received positive feedback from the community. 

“I have some very strong parents who believe “my child needs a snow day” and those are primarily the younger grades versus those who say “this is the best thing we should have been doing it for years”  but overall the community has been tremendous and they are going with the punches and flow.” 

A mom of three children all located in different buildings throughout the district (intermediate, middle school, and high school), expresses her and her family’s feelings about virtual instruction on snow days.

“My kids enjoyed the virtual snow days, the only challenge for us was a strain on the speed of our internet as we were all online at the same time using chrome books and multiple other devices.”

For her, all three of her kids were on zoom the same days, following their normal daily schedule. From their perspective, they had no complaints.

“My kids were able to get up a little later and enjoyed going outside in the snow once the virtual classes ended.”

She hopes virtual snow days stay in the future but the only thing she would change is having a mix of both kinds of snow days to give the students both opportunities.

“I hope virtual snow days stay for the upcoming years, but not for more than one virtual instruction day in a row. They do need to experience a true rite of passage snow day.”

Senior, Riley Sharp expresses her feelings about virtual snow days as well saying she isn’t a huge fan of them.

“Even though we’re teenagers we still like to have fun snow days whether that be by a fireplace with hot chocolate or playing outside in the snow,” Sharp says

Sharp thinks that they shouldn’t exist as we have plenty of snow makeup days built into the school calendar.

“There should be maybe one or two virtual snow days, but no more than that.”

No matter the feelings towards snow virtual instruction days Doll is extremely grateful for the community, staff, and students for adapting to his virtual instruction days this year and he is trying his best to find balance.

“I have taken my approach as superintendent to find some balance between virtual instruction and a traditional snow day.” 

Many may not realize that Doll did give Dallastown a traditional snow day this school year while many other students in different school districts were not given this opportunity.

The differences in instruction based on the buildings

Another thing many may not realize is how different these virtual instruction days can look based on the building within the district. 

Elementary schools did asynchronous work on snow days. 

Teachers would post-work or send it home with the kids if they had enough warning for snow in the forecast. 

However, once they had two virtual days in a row they would start zooming on the second day. 

Dolls’ idea with this was to give the parents balance and allow the students time to play in the snow like they would during a traditional day. 

While also completing school work so the day wouldn’t have to be tacked onto the end of the year.

The intermediate school would rotate back and forth between zoom and asynchronous. 

Then the middle school and high school would do the same thing and had zoom classes on all of their virtual snow days this year. 

Summary

Due to the contract extension allowing the District more flexible instructional days throughout the 2021-22 school year, virtual snow days may continue.

However, with Doll’s firm belief in balance he hopes to find a way to make all students happy, with a mix of both virtual learning days and traditional snow days.