School Snow Days Could Soon Have Virtual Classes In Anne Arundel County

ANNE ARUNDEL COUNTY, MD — Students may have to take virtual classes on some snow days in Anne Arundel County. The Board of Education invited families to comment on the proposal before a final vote next week.

The Maryland State Department of Education recently authorized local school systems to switch to online learning for eight days during this school year.

Mark Bedell, superintendent of Anne Arundel County Public Schools, only wants to use those days to continue instruction during inclement weather.

The virtual days could be synchronous, meaning classes happen live, or asynchronous, meaning lessons are recorded and can be completed at any time. No more than three of the eight days can be asynchronous.

To minimize the effects on any semester, schools can only have three online days in any marking period.

The AACPS superintendent would have the final say on whether to use a virtual day and whether it would be synchronous.

Students in grades 3 to 12 and all teachers would have to take their portable devices home daily in case classes move online. Students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade all have devices that stay at home.

Teachers will take attendance during virtual classes, but online days cannot hurt a student's grades. There must be opportunities for students to make up work outside of the virtual instruction.

The days would count as full school and work days. Online days cannot negatively affect the pay of AACPS employees, including custodians and cafeteria workers.

Officials hope the plan would prevent classes from running later into the summer. Extra snow days pushed the final day of school to June 24 last year, WBAL-TV 11 Baltimore reported.

"We built in three snow days last year and we used eight, so we added five days to the end of our calendar," AACPS spokesperson Bob Mosier told WBAL. "That isn't something that sat well with our families."

The school board is accepting public comments through Sunday. The board will hold a vote at its Sept. 21 meeting, WBAL said.

Families can visit aacps.org/virtualdayplan to watch the full presentation from the Sept. 7 meeting, read the proposal and share their thoughts.

Residents can read WBAL's story for more reactions.