Schools count calamity days as winter weather drags on

Schools throughout Lorain County were expected to return to class today after being shuttered due to brutal cold for the first half of the week. Districts burned through calamity days on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, with superintendents citing below-zero wind chills alongside road conditions and snowfall as a deciding factors in the closures. For Lorain School Superintendent Jeff Graham, there is no specific formula to cancel school. He said at its core, the call comes down to "is it safe today?" Last-minute closures can cause families problems with child care, and many children rely on the three meals the district provides students, Graham recognized, as well as the simple educational factor of students' time better spent in they classroom than not, but he said ultimately everything comes down to safety. The vast majority of Lorain students, including at its elementary schools, walk or bike to school, he said, and when sidewalks are not clear and temperatures are well below zero, those things must be taken into account. At another Ohio school district, Graham remembered receiving threats for closing school, and threats for keeping it open. There is no pleasing everyone, he said. "Our job is to provide a quality education and sometimes things we have no control over — in this case, the weather — get in the way," he said. "And we have to figure out how to compensate for that." Elyria School Superintendent Ann Schloss found herself in a similar boat. Frigid temperatures put students who wait for a bus or walk to school at risk of frostbite, and unshoveled sidewalks can force children to walk in the road. Mounds of snow that can tower over young students' heads also give Schloss pause about the safety of children walking near busy roadways. "Everyone always says, 'What's the magic number?' but I don't think that's the only question you ask yourself," she said. "It's the number, the wind, circumstances, timing of the storm and cold. On Monday, there was no way we could've opened for business because we couldn't keep up on Sunday with the snow." Jen Carter, of Elyria, has a freshman daughter at Elyria High School and appreciated the district closing due to the cold to keep kids out of the cold. "If school wasn't called, I would see so many very small kids to high school (age) walking in a hoodie and tennis shoes in the street because no one shovels anymore," she said. Carter, 50, recognized she and many of her peers walked to school in similar weather, but said that did not make it right. She also noted crossing guards have to stand out in the frigid weather, putting them at risk too. In the southeastern portion of the county, Columbia Schools Superintendent Graig Bansek looks to the district's maintenance crews, as well as Columbia Township staff, to help determine road conditions alongside temperatures to factor into the inexact science of calling off school. He agreed with Graham. Superintendents can never win. "I and my colleagues are getting every side of this and we're never going to make everybody happy," he said. "At the end of the day, safety of our kids and staff are our No. 1 priority." Asked whether students would fall behind after being out of class for a few days, Bansek was confident Columbia's teachers and support staff would keep students on track. If we were looking at two or three consecutive weeks (without school), that would be a fair question," he said. "But our teachers work morning, noon, night and weekends to make sure our kids are successful." Bansek, who plans to retire at the end of the year, is running as a Democrat to represent Ohio's 52nd House District. The seat is currently held by state Rep. Gayle Manning, R-North Ridgeville, who is term-limited from running again. Online learning When the pandemic closed schools during the 2019-20 school year, schools pivoted to offer online learning to finish out the school year. As snow days stacked up this month, some districts required students to tune in to classes online while others did not have the infrastructure in place. Lorain County Educational Service Center Superintendent Franco Gallo noted there are guidelines put in place by the state for districts to provide online learning instead of taking a calamity day. Those regulations include providing synchronous classes — meaning all students attend a video class in real time — which can be difficult for districts where families struggle with stable internet access. Unions must also agree to the option. Schools must submit a plan to the state by Aug. 1 to be able to provide online lessons during snow days. "There are issues to just quickly pivot," he said, noting the pandemic left a "bad taste" in many mouths. While Lorain is looking at offering a digital academy in the future, that school will have a separate listing from the state and will offer every child a computer and hot spot, which is not something the district can offer to all of its 6,200 students right now. Wellington Schools is not formally requiring students to sign in to online lessons when students are out due to weather, but Superintendent Andy Peltz said families are encouraged to help students keep up with their studies through Google Classroom when calamity days occur. While the current stretch of time out of school does not compare to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, Peltz said that educators have learned lessons on how to push through and continue helping students. "I think that's one of the silver linings that came out of COVID," Peltz said. "So many of our lesson plans, additional resources, have already transitioned to online platforms such as Google Classroom." He said the district is in a "comfortable position" with its remaining calamity days, but that the pressure is on to get its students ready for upcoming state tests. Peltz said the district is "encouraging teachers to take a look at their lesson plans. You know, where could they tighten up things that they can to prepare for the state testing in April? Where can we make sure that we frontload the information that our students are still prepared?" It is a position many other districts find themselves in. The state requires between 910 and 1,001 instructional hours for students, depending on grade level, with most districts building in extra hours to their schedules to leave room for Ohio's unpredictable weather or other unforeseen issues. North Ridgeville Schools informed families it may have to tack on classes if it uses another calamity day. "There's no need to make up any instructional time at this moment," said Brooke Roshong, North Ridgeville Schools communications supervisor. "If we end up having an eighth day, then we will be looking to make up days at the end of May after our last day of school." Roshong said the North Ridgeville district would keep an eye on the weather through the remainder of the winter. "We're fine at this point, it just depends on, you know, what February brings, of course, and what that might look like," Roshong said. Similarly, the Lorain County Joint Vocational School has expended all of its calamity days, according to Mario Codispoti, its director of communications. Codispoti said the JVS had built in five calamity days into the school calendar, and that "as of Monday, we reached the five." Since then, JVS students have been working on an asynchronous schedule, Codispoti said. "We're trying to make sure that students have enough hours and providing curriculum and instruction through that virtual modality allows us to continue with the scheduled calendar," Codispoti said. Although students may not be in the classroom — or in the case of the JVS, the garage, lab or workshop — Codispoti said this stretch of calamity days gives an alternate opportunity to learn. "I think it teaches our students that's kind of the workplace, too," Codispoti said. "A lot of workplaces (are) virtual or hybrid. … It's giving students disguised exposure to the actual workplace." Lorain Schools would trade staff professional development or record days for instructional time to avoid lengthening the school year, if necessary, Graham said. In Elyria, Schloss said there is still some "padding" left, but that another bout of storms or a cold snap in February or March may force makeup days when the weather warms. In her 34 years in the district, she counted on one hand the number of times Pioneers had stayed home more than two days in a row. The January closures were not the norm, she said, and hoped what she coined "epic happenings" would not continue the rest of the winter. Contact Garrett Looker at glooker@chroniclet.com. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.