BY MATT LINDSEY

North Country This Week

PARISHVILLE -- St. Lawrence County schools can now require students to learn remotely on days students are home from school for a variety of reasons, as well as adjust the number of snow days built into their calendars.

"Historically remote days were associated with COVID and quarantines, not snow days," said PHCS Superintendent Steve Coffin. "It's now a tool districts can use for any extraordinary situation like weather events, heating issues, water main breaks, etc. but parents aren't really used to that application yet."

The Department of Education added flexibility to districts through a “snow day pilot” program.

This excerpt is from a memo released from the Department of Education in September of this year: “The Department previously authorized a “snow day pilot” program during the 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 school years. This program allowed school districts to deliver instruction remotely on days in which they would otherwise have closed due to an emergency. In the 2020-2021 school year, 126 districts reported utilizing this program.”

This “snow day pilot” program was extended to the 2022-2023 school year.

School districts create calendars annually providing 180 days of instruction. When PHCS built its current calendar they planned for 183 days of school, Coffin said.

The district chose to keep three snow days in the calendar knowing that they could likely shift to remote instruction depending on the circumstance. Many districts choose five snow days. The extra two snow days at PHCS were applied to the Thanksgiving break.

"This is the third year we have built a calendar that included an extended break at Thanksgiving," Coffin said.

The 2020-2021 school year was the first year the district started to adjust the calendar to include less built in snow days.

"On average the district was only using about three snow days a year and this can create problems towards the end of the year when you have all of these unused snow days," he said. "Those unused days would become 'give back' towards the end of the year when students are getting ready to take finals and regent exams. So we chose to make a calendar with a little more predictability on the front end."

The final school day in June is almost universal across the state as the end date is dictated by the conclusion of the secondary regent exams. However, the school’s start date, and the dates of instruction up until that last day, are locally determined.

Getting the message about the changes could have been handled better, Coffin said.

"This is one area where messaging could have been better by the district for this coming year," the super said. "We conducted 1.5 remotes last year, teachers were prepared for the switch to remote learning when necessary and our students have had experience in it, so it wasn't something that was necessarily new to the district. But I do wish we had better messaging out to parents of when and why we would transition to remote this year, I can see how that caught some parents off guard."

Remote learning can be delivered both synchronously and asynchronously.

"The majority of live instruction (synchronous instruction) takes place first period," Coffin said.

This is also when teachers take daily attendance for the day. After the first period much of the instruction is delivered asynchronously.  "Asynchronous instruction seems to be more manageable for students in homes with more than one student," Coffin said. "It also lets some students work at their own pace."

Just like a regular school day, work is expected to be finished by 3:10 p.m.

Remote days begin at 10 a.m., much like a two-hour delay, this allows students and staff time to prepare for remote instruction.  

Coffin said students are encouraged to take home their Chromebooks every night, especially when a "snow day" may be likely.  

"At the younger ages we have instructional remote day packets distributed in student folders," Coffin said.

Remote learning days are considered a regular school day so if students do not attend a remote day they are considered absent.  

"On remote days the administrators and main office do reach out to every student marked absent to verify their absence isn't related to technology or access to the internet as most of the instruction depends on a wifi connection or some sort of technology," Coffin said.  

The first snow day this year was considered a non-instructional “snow day” at PHCS. That storm resulted in several power outages throughout the district so officials chose to treat that day as a traditional snow day.”

The district's most recent snow day didn’t result in widespread power outages so school officials shifted to remote instruction.

PHCS currently has two snow days left to finish out the year.