Kids will go back to online learning if snow hits

But 4th-graders glad to be back at school Monday

By Ken Park • February 8, 2021 1:30 am

Feb. 8 marked the first day of in-person learning for North Kitsap School District’s fourth-graders, but their week in the classroom could be cut short as the forecast is calling for snow.

If that happens, they again will be learning from home.

Though the weather maps and models are finnicky on exactly when and how much snow to expect, NKSD is preparing for students for either distance learning or for the district’s Pre-K-fourth-graders in-person learning.

“As a district, we recognize the importance of continuous learning even in an unplanned closure. Due to the distance learning and hybrid in-person schedules we have this year; we are making adjustments to our inclement weather procedures. For this school year, our inclement weather days will now be remote-learning days whenever possible. On inclement weather days, students and teachers will remain on the current distance-learning schedule,” reads the notice on the NKSD website.

While some districts are recognizing pre-planned snow days and the impending potential snow days by marking them as days off of school, whether on Zoom or in the classroom, NKSD is taking advantage so that no days need to be made up at the end of the year.

Should a snow closure occur, notifications will be sent to families as soon as possible through its regular channels of email, text, flash alert and district website.

In the meantime, the district is also preparing to welcome back its fifth-graders Feb. 22 and working out the kinks of bringing back its secondary school students.

On Monday, NKSD middle and high school parents should have recived an emailed survey regarding if their student takes a school bus as transportations is proving to be one of the more complex hurdles of gettling secondary students back in class.

“As we have shared, bringing these students back is extremely complex for a variety of reasons…While we have an amazing team in our Transportation Department, we simply do not have enough drivers available to run every route every day for all grade levels. We are asking for the help of our middle and high school families to overcome this challenge,” reads the letter to NKSD families.

“We implore families to respond to this survey as quickly as possible. As a reminder, we are asking that whenever possible, families either transport their student to and from school, or that students self-transport to and from school. In addition to helping us return secondary students to our campuses, this also helps us uphold health and safety measures by maintaining as much social-distancing as possible on our buses.”

Once a solution to the transportation problem is solved, among the other issues, the district will propose potential starting dates and outline the different safety protocols.