The Bremen City School district is considering an option that will keep students from missing out on days of learning when schools are closed during inclement weather. Superintendent David Hicks said administrators are looking into a digital-at-home-learning option, which educators could present as a possibility the day or two prior to potentially bad weather days. Hicks said various websites provide a channel for digital learning at home, including Google classroom.
“After last year with missing so many days, it definitely brought it more to the forefront of the discussion because we feel like that the eight days that we missed did have an adverse instructional effect. In fact most of the teachers that you would talk to would tell you that it is virtually impossible to make up that time,” Hicks told WLBB radio. “So if there was away to be able to do that remotely, I think it is something that we would seriously consider if we were able to anticipate ahead of time and know in advance for teachers to be able to set that up.”
Hicks said the only hiccups with this option is student access to a digital devices, they would either use their own device or one through the school.
Hicks said there is another concern, “We are a city system but we do have non-residents. If they don’t have service or if their service is unreliable, but I think that would be a small number of kids.”
Hicks joked that the concept of digital learning on a snow day may not be popular with students but, he said he envisions digital learning to focus on academic classes primarily. This means a digital day could equate to only a half day of schooling.
