Waking up on Tuesday, Dec. 2, Mahita Karnati, junior, learned that school had been cancelled for inclement weather. She looked forward to spending additional time with her family, especially her older sister, Suchita Karnati, Class of 2022.
“It gets hard for her to visit sometimes, so getting a whole day to spend more time with her is really nice,” Karnati said.
However, on Sunday, Nov. 21, Superintendent Dr. Curtis Cain released a message reminding that the number of traditional inclement weather days would decrease from 7 to 4 days this school year. If the district uses four inclement weather days, any future school cancellations would result in five Alternative Method of Instruction (AMI) days.
Karnati said the possibility of having AMI days ruins the chance for a break from school.
“Now that I’m getting extra work to do, I have to worry about past assignments, the AMI day assignments and studying in general, and I want to spend time with my family and play in the snow,” Karnati said.
Mary LaPak, chief communications Officer, said the policy for inclement weather days is essentially the same as last year. The number of school days has gone down from 176 to 173 which caused the seemingly lower number of built in inclement weather days, Lapak said.
After the reserved inclement weather days, state law permits school districts to have 36 hours of AMI instruction, and afterward the school calendar has to be extended for each inclement weather day.
“AMI days give us a buffer of five additional snow days before we have to start adding days onto the end of the school year, and they will only be used if we reach a fifth snow day,” LaPak said.
Last year, the district used 7 out of 7 traditional inclement weather days, and LaPak said any more inclement weather would have resulted in AMI.
On AMI days, LaPak said teachers should post assignments on Canvas by 9 a.m. for middle and high school students. She also said there will be no changes to the A, B or C day schedules if these days occur.
“Making decisions about whether to have school during inclement weather is something Dr. Cain and members of his leadership team take very seriously,” LaPak said. “The safety of students and staff will always be the main concern.”
On a potential AMI day for her AP Biology class, Dawna Barnhart, science teacher, said her class might start with an AP Classroom assignment or video and completion of it would mark attendance. She also said another option would be a recorded lecture.
“The Rockwood policy of snow days matches other districts in the area,” Barnhart said. “We are lucky to have four snow days given to us at the start.”
