JEFFERSON CO., Pa. (EYT) – In the future, a snow day for students may not translate into a day away from school work.
On Monday, June 24, the Pennsylvania House of Representative passed a bill that had already worked its way through the Pennsylvania Senate that would allow up to five “flexible instructions days” every school year. On these days, students would do work at home instead of having to be in the physical school setting. Schools would assign work and the provided assignments could include online or offline instruction.
The bill now goes to Governor Tom Wolf’s desk. It is unknown if Wolf will sign the bill into law.
Under the bill, schools could use the flexible days during closures due to weather, threats made to the school, or building repairs. The flexible days would count toward the schools required 180 days of instruction preventing many schools from having to extend their school year due to inclement weather.
Proponents of the bill say it helps keep students on track and prevents them from becoming unaccustomed to school during the days missed due to extreme weather. However, many local superintendents including those at Forest Area, Keystone, and Oil City School Districts expressed serious concern with the bill.
“I struggle with it simply because of access,” Forest Area School District Superintendent Amanda Hetrick said.
“In Forest County, we don’t have broadband access everywhere that our kids live. It would be challenging for our teachers and our students.”
According to Hetrick, Forest Area School District does not provide their students with permanent laptop devices that can be taken home, so there may be a challenge faced by many students who do not own the technological devices necessary to complete the assignments.
Other area superintendents agreed with Hetrick’s assessment.
“One of the things that I think is concerning is the assumption that is made by legislature about the access to high-speed internet and other forms of technology for students that are in distant rural locations,” Keystone School District Superintendent Shawn Algoe explained.
“If you’re a school in an area where (everyone) has a smartphone and laptop and high-speed internet access, your concern is much different.”
While some students may outright not have any access to the internet services that may be necessary to participate in the days suggested by this bill, even those who do may find it difficult to complete assignments.
According to a recent Penn State Research Project, the average internet speeds for Forest, Venango, Clarion, and Jefferson Counties ranges between 4 and 10 megabytes per second (Mbps) putting it well below the state average of 47.3 Mbps download speed. This is all without even mentioning the impact the bill may have on student achievement.
Oil City Area School District Superintendent Lynda Weller said that many school district discussions have revolved around how the implementation of the bill would impact student learning and opportunity.
“The days aren’t equal,” Weller said.
Weller also explained that flexible days to the school schedule brings up many concerns about the quality of instruction that would be delivered to students.
“Your best bang for your buck is when the kids are in the classroom with a teacher,” she added.
Algoe expressed a concern that every school district is different.
“I’m not sure that everyone always takes into consideration the fact that we are all very different,” Algoe said.
Under this program, it would be difficult to provide the specialized instruction necessary for student success, according to Algoe.
“Not every kid’s needs can be met through the cyber universe particularly if they have very detailed therapy plans that dictate a specific number of days or hours that those services are to be rendered,” Algoe said. “There are a lot of logistics to this kind of thing that would need to be evaluated and worked out before I would jump on board. Not to say that it could never happen.”
Not all discussion of the bill is negative, however, with at least one local superintendent saying he would be interested in implementing the program.
“Speaking for my school district, we would be interested if that becomes the law,” Punxsutawney Area School District Superintendent Tom Lesniewski said.
According to Lesniewski, the school would put together a committee to study the implementation of the program to figure out the logistics.
Punxsutawney Area students are all provided with school-issued laptops, Lesniewski said.
While his view on the bill may have been more positive, Lesniewski agreed with the concerns brought up by the other local superintendents.
“There are a lot of what-if’s that I think we, as a community, would have to answer,” Lesniewski added.
“For example, not everybody in my 300 square mile school district has internet access. We don’t want this to be a waste of an instructional day.”
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