Snow days are often a dream come true for kids but a nightmare for some parents and educators, who worry about the long-term impact of missed school and remote learning on students’ academic progress.
During their March 6 meeting, members of the Buncombe County Board of Education unanimously approved a resolution to add eight in-person instructional hours to the 2024-25 Buncombe County Schools (BCS) academic calendar to help make up for days lost to Tropical Storm Helene and other weather-related cancellations this year.
“We’re grateful that we have been able to use remote instruction on [inclement weather] days. It certainly is better than not having that option. But we also know that remote instruction is not equivalent to in-person instruction,” Associate Superintendent Jennifer Reed told the board during the meeting.
According to a staff report, North Carolina state law requires that school districts include 185 days or 1,025 hours in each school year. Buncombe County Schools (BCS) approved its academic calendar last year with 179 days and 1,062 hours. State law also typically allows up to five days or 30 hours of remote instruction, in which students access assignments virtually and complete them at their own pace, in the event of inclement weather.
After Tropical Storm Helene hit Western North Carolina in late September, students missed 19 days of in-person instruction. In October, state lawmakers approved House Bill 149 which increased the amount allowed remote learning days in BCS to 30, or up to 180 hours, due to inclement weather.
The law allowed the school district to mark days missed from Helene as complete. As of March 6, Enka, Charles D. Owen, A.C. Reynolds and T.C. Roberson districts utilized 28 days of remote learning, while North Buncombe and Erwin districts utilized 32 days.
Parents and educators have criticized the remote learning and weather-related school closure policies at BCS and Asheville City Schools (ACS) as putting children behind. Some parents pointed out that many BCS children are still catching up after COVID-19 related closures and remote learning sessions.
Reed explained that the proposed revisions would change Monday, March 17 from an optional teacher workday to an early dismissal day and adjust Tuesday, April 1 and Friday, May 23 from early dismissal days to full school days. The changes would add a total of eight instructional hours to the current school year.
“Hopefully over the next few weeks, we’ll see a lot of warm weather and not have to deal with remote instruction anymore this year,” added Reed. “Hopefully — knock on wood.”
Before you comment
The comments section is here to provide a platform for civil dialogue on the issues we face together as a local community. Xpress is committed to offering this platform for all voices, but when the tone of the discussion gets nasty or strays off topic, we believe many people choose not to participate. Xpress editors are determined to moderate comments to ensure a constructive interchange is maintained. All comments judged not to be in keeping with the spirit of civil discourse will be removed and repeat violators will be banned. See here for our terms of service. Thank you for being part of this effort to promote respectful discussion.