How many snow days is too many before Juneau’s school year extends into the summer?
The Juneau School District hasn’t reached that point, according to Chief of Staff Kristin Bartlett. That’s partially because the district was able to get some of the lost days waived by the state, due to extraordinary weather. It also has four extra days built into its calendar.
And while Juneau has seen a lot of snow the past few days, the district hasn’t taken a day off so far. Bartlett said the district has a process for deciding whether or not to close schools on snowy days.
“At four or five o’clock in the morning, the superintendent connects with the First Student bus company,” she said. “And they have gone out to drive the routes and look at the condition of the roads there.”
Then, the superintendent speaks with the city manager, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities and the National Weather Service in Juneau.
“Take all of that input into consideration and make a decision about whether or not there’ll be school,” Bartlett said. “And then we get the word out.”
Juneau’s schools closed for three days in early January due to extreme weather from heavy rain falling on several feet of snow already on the ground. The city issued avalanche evacuation advisories during the storm.
The district submitted a request asking the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development to waive those days as emergency closures. The state approved the waiver earlier this week.
During and after the January weather emergency, some schools had to close to clear their roofs. Bartlett said students and teachers were set up for remote learning then.
As for why remote learning isn’t always employed on bad weather days, Bartlett said sometimes the weather changes without warning, and students don’t have their equipment.
Other times, staff are also impacted by the city-wide weather emergencies.
“So they might not be able to do the remote instruction part, like the students might be available to to learn,” Bartlett said. “But the teachers are dealing with the flood in their house, or … maybe they’ve evacuated from an avalanche zone, or they have to clear the snow off of their roof.”
And it’s not just snow — this year, the school year was delayed one day when schools closed Aug. 14 in response to the glacial outburst flooding emergency. The state waived that day as an emergency closure as well.
The district didn’t request an emergency waiver for one snow day in December.
So while there have been five school closures this school year, four of them were waived by the state. Bartlett said the school year is 174 days long for students – four days longer than the state’s minimum, which leaves some padding for any remaining snow days.
Clarification: The title of this story has been updated to clarify that the Juneau School District will not need to make up the four snow days that have already occurred.
