Amid the unusual snow in the triangle area this winter, Wake County Public Schools have been left to figure out how we will make up for the lost educational hours.
Wake County’s policy states that students must have 1,025 educational hours in a school year, leaving what is called banked days in case of unexpected dismissal. This is so that we don’t have to make up a certain number of missed school days.
In this year’s case, WCPSS have exceeded the number of available banked days for the year, forcing the county to make teacher work days into real school days to make up for lost time.
Wake County has made May 2, March 14, and April 7 — previously teacher workdays — into regular educational days for traditional schools in the county.
Many people have questioned the idea of remote or asynchronous learning days, like those practiced during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to 2021.
Having remote learning days would allow the county to make up for the missed hours without taking away days off for students. But per Wake County policy, the county will not schedule remote learning days until all banked days and teacher workdays are used as make-up days.
“I would definitely choose to have virtual learning days rather than making them up on a teacher work day. The benefit of it is that you can choose your laptop and be done with class and it gives you that time to take a break,” said Sean Colbert-Lewis Jr., a senior.
The main hesitations of Wake County stem from the negative experiences with remote learning for teachers and students during the pandemic, and internet access for all students. However, Colbert-Lewis feels strongly that it would not be an issue every now and then.
“I think it would be best to have makeup days instead of online school because myself and many other people learn better with in person instruction. I prefer to be hands-on in class and collaborate with my teacher and peers, so having instruction online, while an okay option for random snow days, is not as beneficial as making up missed days in person,” said Abby Coughlin, junior.
Proposals to change the policy were discussed at the last school board meeting on Tuesday, February 18, but no motion has been made to change the policy.
Snow or not, a day off is nice, but depending on who you ask, it’s not always worth it if you end up making up for lost time later.
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