Port Chester School District addresses snow day policies

Winter is coming—there’s no stopping it. And as leaves start falling to the ground and the temperatures take a frigid turn, the season’s first snow is just around the corner.

Many elements of education have changed in the post-COVID era, as the mastery of remote learning has both hampered students’ learning and provided technological silver linings.

With the smooth transition to the online classroom now a well practiced phenomenon for teachers, school districts across the country this year have been grappling with a similar question: is there a future for snow days?

Last week’s edition of the Westmore News attempted to delve into the 2022-23 snow day policies at the Blind Brook and Port Chester school districts. While the Blind Brook administration was able to engage in the conversation, leadership at the Port Chester School District was unable to provide thoughts or comments in time for this newspaper’s Wednesday night deadline, despite numerous communication attempts over several days.

However, after the story went to print, the district provided a written statement regarding their closure plans through their PR firm, Syntax.

According to Superintendent Dr. Aurelia Henriquez, per policy negotiated with the district’s unions, Port Chester Schools will utilize two traditional snow days/emergency days if needed in the upcoming school year. Beyond that, if more in-person classes must be cancelled, the district will transition into remote learning for the day.

“During the height of COVID, remote learning obviously became an essential tool for schools, and we realized that remote learning had the potential to offer us greater flexibility in offering educational opportunities to students. This included using remote learning for emergency closures so that students would not miss instructional days,” Ivan Tolentino, executive director of human resources, wrote in a statement. “That being said, we realized that snow days are something that are a part of our childhoods and important to our families. Using feedback from many of our families, and in consultation with our unions, we developed the protocols that allow (them).”