RIPLEY, W.Va. — More than a dozen West Virginia school districts are taking advantage of a non-traditional virtual learning option as winter weather conditions continued to impact in-person learning this week.
On Wednesday, 18 districts went virtual and 37 districts closed for the day amid single digit temperatures and icy road conditions.
Some areas of West Virginia dipped down to as low as 0 degrees with wind chills below negative 10 degrees Wednesday morning.
Jackson County Schools was among those to continue operating virtually. Superintendent Will Hosaflook said it’s a great option to keep students in school without missing instruction time.
“We could either do a non-traditional instructional day or we do an OS day, which puts another day at the end of the calendar in June. As we know, if we start adding days on to the calendar, our attendance sometimes suffers,” he told MetroNews.
Virtual learning has been offered since the COVID-19 pandemic, but Hosaflook said they never had to use that option due to the lack of snow during the 2022-2023 school year.
“This is the first day we’ve used it in Jackson County because last year we didn’t have snow,” he said.
All 8th through 12th grade students are provided a MacBook laptop at the beginning of the school year with all of their learning materials uploaded.
“Students are aware that their non-traditional instruction day plan will be on Canvas learning system. If the child does not have internet, there have already been arrangements made where packets are delivered,” Hosaflook said.
Elementary school students have paper packets. Students use iPads in the classrooms but are not allowed to take those devices home.
Hosaflook said they were also operating on a two-hour delay due to the road conditions. He said it’s never a good idea to let kids stand out in single digit temperatures.
“To have students wait at a bus stop in negative 10-degree wind chill is just not acceptable,” he said.
Hosaflook said Thursday morning should be on a normal schedule, but Friday morning will be the bigger concern with more snow on the way.