The end of South’s first semester was fairly sporadic, with snow days ruining the schedules of students and teachers alike. While these unexpected days off are enjoyable now, unfortunately all of them will have to be made up later. They won’t be made up in the gloomy days of the winter months, but rather in warmer spring days, when we should be enjoying the good weather. So far, we have had two snow days, which will be replaced by Fargo Public School’s only two scheduled days built into the calendar as snow day make-up days. However, if the weather calls for another snow day, we will be forced to extend the school year and be in school during the beautiful days at the end of the school year.

A remedy to this would be using virtual schooling on snow days instead of canceling school., A virtual make-up day would be completely possible due to the virtual experiences of last year. However, a Fargo Public School Board ruling from March 2021 completely banned the schools from being able to schedule any virtual school days. Even in the case of inclement weather, where moving online would be a safe and sound solution. This is a problem relevant to now, as both of Fargo Public School’s scheduled off days have been used by snow days.

So what’s the reasoning behind this ruling? It seems like at least having the option of virtual days on the table would allow for more comfort and flexibility within our schedule, which is already more rigid than other school districts. However, the school board has ruled e-learning days as out of the picture on the basis that all instruction must be in-person. However, both West Fargo Public Schools and Moorhead Area Public Schools have been successful with using virtual days to supplement their in-person days. When both of these school districts have snow days or COVID-19 out-breaks, instead of completely giving up and doing nothing on these school days, they have virtual days and assignments that can be completed from home. This makes sense, because the hybrid 2020-2021 year already forced schools to implement technologies and strategies to be able to compensate with at-home learning. 

Furthermore, the weather and pandemic are unpredictable, and it is foreseeable that we will have to have another off day due to a COVID-19 outbreak or bad weather. If this happens, having a virtual day would prevent us from having to make up more days near the end of the year.

I, as a student, urge Fargo Public Schools to allow for virtual learning, because I’d rather have a few virtual days during the cold winter than be stuck in school during the bright hours of the summer. But what does a teacher think about the ban on virtual learning? We asked Mr. Kraft, a foreign language teacher at Carl Ben Eielson and Fargo South.

“As a teacher who predominantly has semester-long courses, having school cancelled during first semester but not made up in first semester results in uneven instructional days between the two semesters. This requires me to make decisions about which parts of the course I will skip or cover in less depth than I usually would.”

While the school districts focus should be on in-person instruction, occasional hybrid days wouldn’t upend the routine of teachers and students.

“I don’t think a virtual learning day would cause much disruption to my usual daily pattern of school days. I imagine to a certain extent the structure of a virtual learning day would mime the typical daily routine of an in-person day… I believe in the midst of the sudden switch to virtual learning in the Spring of 2020 we all grew fatigued of the need to do everything virtually. A virtual day every once in a while seems quite different to me than trying to have virtual learning every day of the year. Yet, I must note that we did prove resilient and made progress toward learning goals despite the circumstances during the COVID shutdown. “

From the perspective of a student and the perspective of a teacher, having virtual days as an available option when school needs to unexpectedly close is a smart solution; however, Fargo Public Schools’ decision to not allow the use of virtual days for unusual or emergency situations is unwise and frankly out-of-touch. I, a student of Fargo Public Schools, urge the school board to reconsider this decision.