NEENAH, WI (WTAQ) – Parents are anxious to find out what plans are in place by schools to make up a number of recent cancellations.
The answer that they receive is going to depend on where their children attend school.
Many schools, including the Oshkosh Area School District, planned for three inclement weather days in their calendar, but have already encountered four at this point.
Their gameplan is to take advantage of an upcoming holiday.
“We had a day coming up very quickly here, President’s Day on February 18th, that we can recoup that day back,” explains Superintendent Vickie Cartwright.
That means that Oshkosh students will now have a normal school day on President’s Day.
“In addition to that we’re looking to our legislature during that time in asking for any provision that they can make for that,” says Cartwright.
School officials also realize that the winter is far from over and more inclement weather days could be coming in the future.
They would prefer to not have to make up a future inclement weather instance if they can get legislators on board with the idea.
Other school districts are tackling the challenge in a less conventional manner.
“We’re doing something a little bit different than most districts,” says Jim Strick with the Neenah Joint School District.
They would like to establish a “Digital Learning Day,” where students are required to complete assignments at home by using IPads or Chromebooks, which will be provided by the school.
Strick says they’ve been working on this for years.
“So we filed a request with the state of DPI, that would be counted as a day of school. So, we’re hoping we don’t have to make any of them up,” says Strick.
He’s less than sure on what “plan B” would look like though, if the state rejects the idea as a way to count towards required school hours.
“We haven’t gotten into those details because we’re confident that this will happen, that its been well planned out,” says Strick.
Most parents agree that they just want things to go back to normal as soon as possible.
“We’re just getting started, it’s the beginning of February, so who knows what’s to come,” says Jennifer Keley of Appleton.
Some school districts, such as the Appleton Area School District, are moving towards a measure to add minutes to the instructional day, rather than add day(s) to the school calendar.
The state requires first through six graders to have 1,050 hours of instruction, while grades seven through twelve are required to have 1,137 hours.
