Are snow days a thing of the past? This school year marks the first year where snow days turned into e-learning days. This raised the question of if snow days are a thing of the past.

“I don’t like the idea of never having a snow day again because it’s nice to maybe go outside or do something you couldn’t do in school or even with online classes,” said freshman Jada Kemp.

Many students find it unbelievable that there might never be snow days again. Students say that snow days can help students get that unexpected but well-needed break every now and then.

“It honestly saddens me as I feel younger kids will never get the feel of going out and playing in the snow, and it prevents students from having said break,” said junior Chris Lantman. 

Not only do students want to keep snow days because they are a nice fun break from school but also because remote learning is difficult and a lot of stress on most students.

“E-learning has definitely made school more difficult in some ways and easier in others. Being at home, it should be easier to get work done, according to the teacher and parents, but sometimes it ends up being harder,” Kemp said.

“I personally think we should keep snow days, and that making them full e-learning days is difficult for the students and the teachers for planning,” Lantman said.

Now what are snow days actually going to look like from now on, and what does that mean for following students?

“If we ever have the opportunity where there’s too much snow or too much ice, or significant cold, 30 below wind chill things like that, I think it would be my preference to have a remote e-learning day,” said superintendent Mikkel Storaasli. 

Storaasli says that instead of snow days, there are most likely going to be e-learning days. However, he said that if a snow day is called to close to the start of the school day, that they would announce an official snow day that would have to be made up at the end of the year. 

“I’d like to give our teachers as much notice as possible. So if they’ve got a lesson plan ready to go for in-person learning when students are in seats, that’s great. But if I say, ‘Hey, no, we’re going to a remote learning day,’ that requires some additional planning. I want to make sure that our teachers have enough planning for that. Sometimes it’s not that easy, so sometimes you have to make that call early in the morning,” Storaasli said.

In the future, there will still be a chance of a snow day mixed with remote learning due to inclement weather or other emergencies.