The uncommon snow and following snow days that occurred during January and February of this school year impacted virtually all Northwood students and staff. As soon as county administrators heard of the possibility for severe weather, they went on high alert.
“The decision to close, delay or dismiss schools is a very complex one and requires the use of a variety of information,” Superintendent Derrick Jordan said. “Predictions from the National Weather Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association and local meteorologists are all considered. We also gather information from the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Sheriff’s Department.”
Though Jordan and his staff carefully evaluate the options when considering closing school, the two-hour (8-10 a.m.) school day Jan. 28 puzzled some students. Because of time constraints, each class period lasted twenty-five minutes.
“In every class we basically went in, got homework and left. We accomplished pretty much nothing,” junior Maxwell Kerscher said.
Some students weighed the options and decided to forgo the school day.
“The two hour day?” junior Hailey Martin said. “I didn’t come because it was two hours; it was really pointless and a waste of gas and time.”
Many students voiced questions about whether the two-hour school day was considered a “full day” of school.
State law requires a minimum of 185 days or 1,025 hours of instruction that spans nine months of the year. Chatham County Schools follows the “1,025 hours” section of that rule.
Every minute of education counts when the school system has a minimum number of required hours that students must attend school. However, sometimes closing school is necessary in order to ensure student and staff safety. The size of Chatham County delivers a unique challenge to officials.
“Because Chatham County spans 707 miles and borders eight other counties, it is very likely that the conditions could be extremely different in various segments of the district at the very same time,” Jordan said.
The majority of Northwood students reported snow at their houses during the canceled school days during January and February. Many had unique experiences, including Kerscher.
“I was with Tristan Cochran, and the first thing we did was snowboard,” Kerscher said. “It was interesting because we were trying to do flips over a rock and a river and it didn’t work very well, and Tristan fell into the river.”
Chatham County’s Auxiliary Services Team—including Chris Blice, former Northwood principal—is the group that recommends that schools close for inclement weather.
“[The team] begins travelling roads between 3 and 4 a.m. to observe conditions,” Jordan said. “Based on their assessments and the weather predictions available at the time from the experts, a recommendation is made to the Superintendent, who makes the final decision.”
The decision to choose make-up days is similar. In order to accumulate 1,025 hours of school time, missed days due to snow have to be made up. A survey was available to both employees and parents about whether they wanted to use Saturdays or Spring Break for makeup days.
The most current makeup days were determined during a School Board meeting Feb. 17. Additionally, beginning March 3, elementary and middle schools will add 15 minutes to their school day. Since the high school instructional day was extended all year, the 15-minute extension will not be necessary.
“We had an overwhelming response [to the surveys] and made the decision to amend the calendar utilizing those considerations, which resulted in us avoiding Saturdays and Spring Break,” Jordan said. “Our community seems to appreciate our efforts to protect Saturdays and Spring Break.”
Students were aware of the efforts of administration and the makeup days they chose.
“I’m happy with [the makeup days],” sophomore Gabriel Webb said. “I think a lot of people during Spring Break are going on vacation, so a lot of people wouldn’t be able to go because they have made plans already.”
Teachers are struggling to catch their classes up through the aftermath of the canceled school days. Theater teacher Kayla Gahagen spoke about the effects of the snow days on the upcoming Spring musical.
“We’ve had to make two different revised copies [of the schedule]. We try to do a schedule so that we have blocking one scene each day, and also working on music. So, with that we’ve had to push the music and blocking, so everything seems really slow right now when it should be moving a lot faster,” Gahagen said. “A lot of the students are stressing out.”
— Adrienne Cleven
