OPINION

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By Hayden Rollison

Thinking back to key memories of my childhood, I specifically remember the rare mornings calling for snow. As soon as my eyes opened on these magical mornings, I would race to the nearest window and throw open the curtains. As a young child, I felt like I was looking at heaven. 

The night before these rare occasions, I would stare at the forecast on my dad’s new iPhone, praying that it would snow overnight. My parents would put me to bed, and I would quickly fall asleep with the dream of waking up early to build a snowman, go sledding down my neighbor’s hill, or have a snow football game with my friends. Whenever this dream did come true, I would wake up to the best days of the year. 

On Monday, January 3, Collegiate and surrounding schools were planning to return to school after Winter Break, but Mother Nature had other plans. NBC12 suggested beforehand that “metro RVA will see 2 to 5 inches.” They also warned the area that “slushy snow on roads will likely freeze over Tuesday morning.” The first week of the new year started with a snowstorm.

Most schools in the Richmond area closed on Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 3 and 4. Some were closed for longer; Hanover County schools closed for the entire week. Monday’s snow day allowed Collegiate students and faculty an opportunity to enjoy the snow. However, with the new policy for snow days that Collegiate has put in place the last two years, Collegiate students were required to learn at home on Tuesday, instead of enjoying one of nature’s finest gifts.

Virtual school via Zoom. Photo credit: BiljaST.

Due to Collegiate’s decision to go virtual after the first snow day, the aspirations and dreams of snow days for all kids in their childhood are slowly vanishing. For a few teachers also, some of their best memories come from the snow days when they were kids. Without true snow days anymore, teachers are unable to create these memories with their own kids. Not only are kids prevented from enjoying a key part of their childhood, but parents and teachers of the Collegiate community are missing out on memories with their kids as well. Snow days are being replaced with virtual learning days, yet the school has a reason for this policy. 

Regarding snow days, Head of School Penny Evins stated, “We quantitatively have to meet a certain number” of days of school. According to Virginia law, “the standard school year shall be 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours.” Evins stated that if we allowed snow days with Collegiate’s new schedule, we would have to “have school earlier, end school later, or have a shorter Spring Break.” 

Collegiate does need to reach a certain number of days of school. But I wish Collegiate gave me the chance to enjoy some of the best things about being a kid. Owen Fallon (‘22) stated that this new policy “is certainly frustrating, but I understand why if they have built-in days off within our schedule.” It seems as if Collegiate is taking advantage of the virtual learning environment developed due to COVID-19. Although Collegiate has worked to return to a normal school environment over the last two years of the pandemic, replacing snow days with virtual school days seems to be heading in the opposite direction. 

Snow in Hanover County during the snowstorm Monday, Jan. 3. Photo credit: Alexa Welch Edlund/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP.

In the new schedule for the 2021-2022 school year, Collegiate added a few extra four-day weeks, intending to give students and teachers a break. The Mondays after Thanksgiving (Nov. 29) and Spring Break (March 14), and the Friday before Presidents Day weekend (Feb. 18), are holidays for students this year, for example. Evins stated, “You all really appreciated the break of a four-day week after having x number of five-day weeks.” Although the student body, including myself, loves a four-day week, we also want the chance to make memories in the snow with our friends and family. When asked about his thoughts on virtual school, Jay Seevers (‘22) stated that “you would think that we could at least go asynchronous.” 

Asynchronous school is also an option. There are a few ways to meet the requirement of approximate six hours of online school. Evins stated that “async learning, remote learning, hybrid learning” all count toward the 180 school days required by law, and “as long as there is a continuity of learning, it doesn’t matter to me.” 

In the Lower and Middle Schools on Tuesday, Jan. 4, Lower School Head Debbie Miller and Middle School Head Tung Trinh decided to have asynchronous school days for their divisions, allowing their students to do assigned work on their own schedule. The Upper School conducted remote classes via Zoom on Jan. 4, a throwback to January 2021, when we began the spring semester with two weeks of virtual Zoom school, and also to the spring of 2020, when remote school first really began due to COVID-19 quarantining.

The asynchronous option is a better version of virtual school for a snow day, as the students remain doing work while enjoying the snow day in their free time. So the decision for asynchronous, synchronous, hybrid, or virtual school is in the hands of the heads of the school’s divisions. When asked about the different options of learning at home, Upper School Spanish teacher Elsie Bustamante stated, “I would prefer to be asynchronous. I think it would be better for everybody’s mental health.”

Although the Lower and Middle Schools had asynchronous days on Jan. 4, snow may still be in our future. Miller says that “On the third day of a snow ‘event,’ [the Lower School will] add a link for a morning meeting in addition to our asynchronous work.” Tung says that the Middle School will have asynchronous work with synchronous help time. However, as stated in an email to Middle School families, if Collegiate is “in a situation where we are off for multiple days in a row, [the Middle School] may move to having classes meet synchronously using our on-campus schedule.”

Perhaps there are alternatives to remote school on snow days? While talking with Upper School math department chair Karen Albright, we collectively created an idea that could be used instead of virtual school during a snowstorm.

Instead of switching to remote learning on a snow day, Collegiate could allow the student body and faculty to enjoy the beauty of nature again. When Mother Nature brings a rare snowstorm into the Richmond area, there would be no more virtual school days. Instead, kids and faculty would be able to enjoy the gift of snow. In order to make the magic number of 180 days, the extra days off in the spring could become asynchronous. This idea allows students to attend school for 180 days but also have the four-day weeks that the new schedule offers. Knowing that these days become asynchronous also allows for teachers to plan ahead. 

Kids making memories in the snow. Photo credit: Max Pixel.

Ideas like these would allow my Upper School history teacher, Nate Jackson, who had to leave playing in the snow with his kid on Jan. 4 to Zoom with his class, to enjoy those rare moments in the Virginia winter. Not only does this give the opportunity to Collegiate teachers to create memories with their families, but it also allows students to create some of the best memories of their lives. Snow days are a part of growing up in Richmond, but they may be becoming increasingly rare due to climate change. 

COVID-19 has already taken away some of the best childhood memories, so let’s not let a simple thing like snow days take those away as well.

Featured image credit: Sarah Ebert via Flickr.