Hello PHCS Families and Community,
Every year school districts across New York State have to create a calendar that provides students 180 days of instruction. The end dates for instruction in June are pretty universal across the state as the end date is dictated by the conclusion of the secondary regent exams. The school’s start date, and the dates of instruction up until that last day, are locally determined.
Districts in the southern part of the state don’t build in many, if any at all, snow days into their yearly calendar. They aren’t worried about inclement weather and, in some cases, they choose to use those days to observe different holidays than the ones we observe in the North Country. It’s common practice in the North Country to have as many snow days in the original calendar as possible to handle the winter storms and fluctuating weather. So it’s not uncommon to see a starting calendar that has 184-187 instructional days to ensure schools have met the mandated 180 days of instruction.
Snow days and emergency days are not treated the same way when counting towards the 180 day calendar. Snow days are considered “extraordinary days”, just like water main breaks, heating issues, etc. School districts would have to use planned vacation days in lieu of snow days if we exhausted all of our snow days. Emergency days are determined by local, county, and state governments by the declaration of a state of emergency. School districts would not have to exhaust scheduled vacation days if school was closed due to a state of emergency.
The Department of Education added some additional flexibility to districts in the form of 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. This gives districts the opportunity to save fewer snow days knowing they could shift to remote learning in the event of an extraordinary condition. When PHCS built our calendar for this year we planned on a 183 day calendar. The District chose to keep 3 snow days in the calendar knowing that we could also choose to shift to remote instruction depending on the circumstance.
Our first snow day this year was considered a non-instructional “snow day”. We had the option to go remote then as well but that storm resulted in several power outages throughout our district so we chose to treat that day as a traditional snow day. Yesterday's remote learning day didn’t result in widespread power outages so we felt comfortable shifting to remote instruction.
We currently have 2 snow days left to finish out the year. The circumstances of the weather event will dictate whether we shift to remote learning or use a snow day. We are fortunate now to have additional tools to help navigate these unpredictable events.
If you have any questions or would like to talk more about the development of our 180 day calendar please don’t hesitate to call the main office and set up an appointment.