Burlington May Have a Solution for Lost School Days Due to Snow

“Blizzard Bags” could be the cure to help with school days lost due to all the recent snow. Burlington Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti posted on his blog this week that back in early January, before all this snow, the Burlington School Committee approved further discussion about the possibility of implementing “Blizzard Bags” to help make up days of school lost due to snow.

Boston has been talking this week about having students make up days on already scheduled holidays and plan to talk to the teachers’ union about how to handle. Across the state school systems are looking to possibly having to add Saturday classes or take time away from April school vacation to make up snow days.

Students across the state haven’t had a full week of school in three weeks following record breaking snowstorms.

Burlington, along with the town of Wayland, is one of two districts in the state that has the approval of the Massachusetts Department of Education to explore an alternative model to making up snow days at the end of the school year.

This pilot program will explore the creation and completion of assignments and projects that students will be able to complete to meet time on learning minutes from school days that are canceled, according to Conti’s blog post. “Of course the number of days that would be added back in would depend on the amount of work involved in the assignments. However, before going too much more into logistics, it is important to discuss school calendar construction/requirements and Blizzard Bags further,” he says.

State regulations require that the district create a 185 day school-year calendar although only 180 days are mandated. The five, built-in days allow for up to five days of cancellations within an approved calendar year. Burlington is currently within its five day allowance already built into the school calendar. If there are no more cancellations, the school year will end on Thursday, June 25 (except for seniors).

School Requirements for Students

According to Conti’s blog, Massachusetts requires elementary and middle school students to attend school for 900 hours per school year and high school students 990 hours per school year, over 180 days. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has not allowed any exceptions to the 180 requirement in prior years. The “Blizzard Bag” pilot provides Burlington with the possibility of maintaining the learning hour requirement but over a reduced number of days.

What are Blizzard Bags?

Conti says the concept of Blizzard Bags is not new. The practice of assigning work to students to make up snow days is already happening in states like Minnesota, Ohio, and New Hampshire just to name a few. One difference in some states, like New Hampshire, is that the students are assigned work to do on a snow day and are expected to have it completed when they get back to school. However, this “homework” will not be the option that we will be looking to replicate this year.

Conti says the Burlington School district is exploring a model where a sufficient amount of lessons/projects will be developed to “equal the amount of instructional time students would have received for the days of school that we are looking to count. Once the assignments are created for all Burlington students, we will create a due-date for their completion. We will continue to offer frequent updates and will have a website with all of the assignments as well as resources to support their successful completion.”

“We believe that these learning projects will be more educationally relevant than additional worksheets,” he says. “We are also exploring ways to leverage the technology that the community provides to extend learning.”

Any proposal would require the approval of both the Burlington School Committee and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. There may also be working condition considerations with regard to school staff, Conti adds.