The fate of cyber snow days: “State discontinued the program”
- Lily Kirstein
- Dec 3, 2018
- 2 min read
During the 2017-2018 school year, Central York School District implemented the use of a Flexible Instruction Day (FID), or as many called it, the cyber snow day.
Flexible Instruction Days allow students to complete assignments online from home in the case of inclement weather or an emergency.
According to Ms. Julie Romig, Director of Communications and Marketing for CYSD, the return of FIDs was reprehended.
“The state discontinued the program at the end of the 2017-2018 school year,” Romig said. This news may come as a disappointment to some, but there were issues to work out with FIDs.
Romig said that the district was authorized for the usage of FIDs because “we were part of a pilot program implemented by the Pennsylvania Department of Education.”
The school district was permitted to use up to five FIDs in the 2017-2018 school year but only used one, Jan. 30, 2018, due to potentially troubling weather.
Christine Wang, a senior at Central York High School, said she thinks that people wouldn’t have to drive in the bad weather and the district wouldn’t have to waste a day that the students could still be getting their education which makes it more preferable.
Some students say that they prefer traditional teaching or they would rather have the classic, work-free snow day.
Abigail Gotwals, a student at CYHS said, “in school there isn’t many distractions, whereas, at home you could go do whatever you want with no instruction.”
Mr. Matthew Hess, a science teacher at CYHS, said that he thought FIDs were all-around good.
“[FIDs] allowed the continuation of learning outside the classroom, even when there was foul weather,” he said.
Altogether, Flexible Instruction Days made a good impression with the students and teachers of the school district; they seemed like a more constructive and a safer alternative to regular snow days.
This school year, there was no usage of the built-in snow day like every other school year. Instead, since the use of FIDs is no longer in existence by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, days that requires the school to be closed will be tacked onto the end of the school year.
“The last weather emergency make-up day is June 10, 2019,” Romig said.