The Westport Board of Education tonight wrestled with what to do if more snow days occur and decided by a 4-3 vote to preserve the April break.
Instead, members decided to make the planned Feb. 28 staff development day a full school day and reduced the number of teaching days on the school calendar to 181 from 182.
If more snow days occur, the school year will be reduced to 180 days, then extended to Thursday, June 23, then Friday, June 24.
If more snow days are needed beyond that, then Superintendent Elliott Landon will cut into the April vacation beginning with Monday, April 18.
This seems like a very sensible solution, as many families (and teachers) will have scheduled vacations during the April break and would not be able to cancel without incurring significant financial penalties.
I would like to see a greater use of technology, especially at the high school level, so that snow days are treated more like “work at home” days than extra holidays. On snow days high school teachers should post work to be done online, which students would be able to access and complete at home. Perhaps the teachers could also be available (either online or through telephonic conference calls) to answer any questions that students have. Now that almost everyone has broadband internet access we should be able to move towards a system where there is no need to add school days because of snow closures, since the students can learn without being physically present at the school. With this system low-income families could be provided with free internet access, and the cost of this would be well worth it to avoid the disruption of trying to add days to the school calendar.