The sixth month of quarantine is soon to be upon us– which happens to also be the first month of the school year for many students across the country who are learning in-person and remotely. 

Remote learning has not only taken the comfort out of many students’ education and annual traditions, but it has also altered the fate of snow days and cold days. As long as students are learning remotely, all that is needed is a stable connection, good lighting and of course, an electronic device.

“I don’t see any reason for a snow day when everyone is learning remotely,”  Sean Fisher, a teacher at Solon High School (SHS) said. “In fact, one of the side effects of this shift to virtual learning is that I could see snow days as a thing of the past since schools are set up to function with everyone being at home.”

Fisher also says that multiple snow days would be detrimental to his AP curriculum, so he wouldn’t be opposed to teaching on a snow day for his students’ sake.

“In some years where there have been multiple days off because of weather it can impact my AP classes since we have a limited number of days to get through the curriculum before the AP test. Usually, it means less time for review before the test or maybe skipping or condensing a lesson or activity that I would normally do.”

At the moment, the majority of teachers teach from home, especially the ones who are considered “high risk” for the virus. But keeping those teachers in mind and teachers who keep the majority of their materials at school would not be kept out of the plan, according to Erin Short, Principal of SHS.

“If we are already all-removed, it would be easier. We would just need to accommodate those teachers who are coming into the building to teach every day. Those that are teaching from home will be all set. But those who are teaching from the building may not have what they need at home to teach from home at the last minute.”

There are times where parents may not let their children drive or walk to school in inclement weather but if we are online, this eliminates the need for parents to do so.

“I can only skip school if I’m sick,” Senior Nandana Ahuja says.

Whether we are in person or remote, there are many risks that the teachers and administrators have to take for us to have a chance at a semi-normal school year.

“I want the teachers to be safe and I know it’s not ideal to teach at home but I worry a lot for them,” Senior Sandra Bowman said. 

Though we are almost a month into the school year, it may be too early to tell whether or not snow days may become another lost occurrence. 

“Again, we have not discussed this at length yet,” Short said. “So much will depend on how we are delivering instruction during the winter months. One of the silver linings of all remote learning is that we are better positioned than we ever have to deal with days we are not able to come into school.”