With worries and confusion about too many snow days, students like junior Josie Ebel are wondering if their summer break will be cut short.
“I wouldn’t really like it if they added extra time,” Ebel said. “All of the staff and students look forward to summer so adding more days would make a lot of people frustrated.”
USD 305 currently is meeting the requirement of 1,116 hours for the school year, so at this point it isn’t necessary to add school days to the calender, Superintendent Linn Exline said.
“At this point we are not adding days back,” Exline said. “But, if difficult weather results in another day canceled, we will need to add an attendance day so we have enough hours to meet the 1116 hours requirement.”
Exline said that cancelling school is not an easy decision.
“Changes to our school schedule are not taken lightly,” Exline said. “Cancellations and delayed starts are inconvenient for families and also affect instruction time.”
Exline said that cancelling school doesn’t only affect the families, but students and staff as well.
“When I cancel school, it impacts parents/guardians’ work schedules, and that impacts employers across Salina, Exline said. “In the end, upholding the safety of students and staff is our priority.”
Exline said that she will have to choose between more time in the school day, or more days in the school year if more time is needed to complete the hours.
“If we have a cancellation late in the year and there are no more options for making up time during the school year,” Exline said.
First-year math teacher Becky Holliday said that she is glad snow days keep students and staff out of danger, but it does affect her curriculum.
“I like that it is a tool to keep students and staff safe and that’s good,” Holliday said. “But it gets annoying when we miss so much.”
When school is not cancelled but there is still snow on the ground and chances of frostbite, USD 305 makes school optional.
Holliday also said when the schools become optional due to existing snow it affects both her and students.
“When we have school days but the snow is still on the ground,” Holliday said. “Some kids choose not to come to school so then we have a lot of students in different places with the curriculum.”
Freshman Reese Schneweis said that a snow day is helpful for staying on top of assignments.
“I feel like the unexpected day off is a day to catch up on school work,” Schneweis said.
Overall, Ebel said that snow days negatively affect students, especially with sudden days off.
“I do think it’s hard to come back to school after an unexpected day off,” Ebel said. “We get a little break from school and then we have to go back the next day which is very hard. We just want it to be the weekend so finishing out the rest of the week is hard.”
