Sterling, RFTHS’ school year lengthened by rounds of snow

STERLING – Ahhhh, the snow day.

A day that begins when students crowd around the TV or, nowadays, check social media sites to see if falling snow, drifting or extremely cold temperatures will let them stay home for the day.

But while students are excited to see the snow fall, administrators are faced with deciding whether to delay the start times, call off school altogether or declare an e-learning day.

Any decision can be tricky: Proceeding with school brings safety concerns, and having the kids at home for any length of time beyond the normal start time can mess up parents’ work schedules.

Keeping them at home all day, whether it’s a snow day or an e-learning day, can affect parents’ availability to their employer. If parents have to go to work, how does one find day care on such short notice?

The decision-making that goes into calling off a day of school is something Sauk Valley school districts faced in January, when heavy snowfall, drifting and dangerously cold temperatures posed a threat to buses, especially those traveling on country roads.

The effect of making the decision weighed heavily on the minds of administrators.

Case in point is Sterling School District 5, which buses 2,000 students to school each day. Sterling schools have called off classes four days this academic year as the result of poor weather conditions – Jan. 9, 12, 22 and 23.

“There is no other decision that I make that impacts our community more so than when we delay or cancel school,” District 5 Superintendent Tad Everett said. “It impacts employers and their workers. Their employees are the parents of our students and, especially young grades, they don’t have day care, and it negatively impacts them, and I hate that.”

In clear-cut cases, administrators can call off school entirely the night before, but it gets very tricky when road conditions are expected to deteriorate quickly in the hours before school. That’s because school start time delays cannot be declared the night before; under state law, that decision and announcement must be made in the hours just before school starts for the day, Everett said.

Everett is part of a team that drives the roads as the district is working toward a decision on whether to cancel school that day or delay its start time.

While in-town roads that have been plowed can appear to be passable, at the same time, “our country roads are horrible,” he said. “Safety is our first priority.”

So Everett makes it a point to personally check out the road conditions.

“People ask me, ‘Why do you drive the roads?” Everett said. “There are four of us, and we divide our district into four sections, and four of us drive the roads, and I do that as one of the four because it’s one of the most important decisions we make, and I want to be intimately involved in that decision.”

Something administrators also have to keep in mind is the school district calendar and how emergency days could extend the school year.

According to state law, Illinois school districts must create a 180-day attendance calendar that also has five additional days available to make up emergency days, including those caused by inclement weather.

For each day school is called off entirely, the district must make it up, but it only applies to a maximum of five days. Any emergency days beyond five do not have to be made up.

If a school district’s start time is delayed two hours, it is considered a regular school day, and no time has to be made up.

But another option is to have students switch to an e-learning day, as Rock Falls did for three days in January. E-learning days can be a substitute for in-class days, and those days do not have to be made up, although school districts are limited to five e-learning days each year.

Sterling schools cannot choose an e-learning day option this year. That’s because to switch to an e-learning day, a school district already must have an e-learning plan on file with the state, which Sterling does not.

Rock Falls Township High School has an e-learning policy in place and implemented it Jan. 12, 16 and 23, Rock Falls High Superintendent Ronald McCord said Thursday.

A snow day was declared Jan. 9, instead of an e-learning day, as school had just gone back into session after the holiday break, McCord said.

Everett said that after emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and the e-learning instruction that went along with it, the district leaned on feedback that indicated e-learning was not something parents and teachers wanted to do. Because no e-learning policy or plan is in place, the soonest the district could declare an e-learning day would be during the 2024-25 school year.

According to the Illinois State Board of Education, before a school board adopts a new policy for e-learning or renews an existing policy, it must hold a public hearing at a regular or special board meeting, during which the public will have an opportunity to comment.

Notice of such a hearing must be provided at least 10 days before the hearing in accordance with the requirements outlined in state statute. The local regional office of education must verify that the plan provides access for all students by Sept. 1 annually. An e-learning program adopted in accordance with these procedural requirements is valid for three years.

Everett said he only will consider moving toward an e-learning plan if teachers support it.

For this school year, Sterling will add its four makeup days to the end of the school year. The last day of school, which originally was May 24, now will be May 31. If there is be one more emergency day, Sterling students’ last day would be June 3.

Graduation dates remain the same as they were before the snow days – 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 23, for Challand Middle School students and 6:30 p.m. Friday, May 24, for Sterling High School.

If May 24 should bring inclement weather that would affect SHS’s outdoor ceremony, it would be postponed to 10 a.m. Saturday, May 25, and would be moved to the gymnasium.

Rock Falls High School’s one makeup day has been added to the end of the school year, making May 22 the last day for students. The May 26 graduation date remains the same, McCord said.

Dixon Public Schools declared snow days Jan. 9, 12, 16, 22 and 23. Although the district has an e-learning plan in place and on file, Superintendent Margo Empen said she would rather call a snow day.

“I have discussed in board meetings the ineffectiveness of e-learning days and why I would call a snow day first,” she said.

The school year will be lengthened five days, with the last day for students set May 29. The last day for teachers is May 30.

Dixon High School’s graduation is Sunday, May 26. The snow days did not affect that date, Empen said.