Mount Vernon Schools will move back to treating snow days as traditional snow days this school year.
This past winter, Mount Vernon Schools used any snow days as a potential online learning day during the school year.
Mount Vernon Schools superintendent Greg Batenhorst said that those snow days came with mixed results.
“While it was nice to continue to move forward with learning despite inclement weather, there were also challenges for students and families with technology access and other barriers created by the weather,” Batenhorst said. “Last year, we could count remote learning days and hours as instructional days and hours toward our state required instructional time. That is not the case this year. Because remote learning time will not count toward our state required instructional time, and due to other barriers with remote learning on these days, we will begin the year by not engaging in remote learning on days when we are closed due to inclement weather.”
Batenhorst noted that Mount Vernon Schools has multiple days built into their calendars this school year, and will only use remote learning days if the district needs to remain on pace with learning expectations for the year.
The district will make the call on whether school is delayed or cancelled at roughly 4:30 a.m. every day, noting Batenhorst would be out driving some of the city streets or checking conditions those days with other area superintendents to make the calls on if school should be held or not.
Batenhorst jokingly encouraged students to take part in whatever rituals they usually take part in to get a snow day off school.