Should Spaulding Continue Blizzard Bags?

Students attending Spaulding High School have debated having blizzard bags since they started in the 2018/2019 school year. The purpose of having them is to replace snow days so we won’t have to add on to the school year. In order for the blizzard bag to count, 80% of the Rochester School District must complete the work provided by their teachers online. Should the blizzard bags continue or do they actually benefit the students?

A poll was taken on Instagram asking students from Spaulding their opinion on this topic. While 44 of the students believe they should continue blizzard bags, the other 66 voted no . Next, students were asked if they completed the work they were assigned to do. While 53 percent said yes, only 47 percent said no. It is clear that many students would rather not do the blizzard bags, but complete them anyway so they’re not marked absent. Along with that, there is always a chance the day might be made up with their participation.

Another survey was taken in the cafeteria during D block study hall that asked students if they should continue the blizzard bags. There were 24 students who responded. 10 of them responded yes, while the other 14 said no. This shows more students believe they should not have to continue doing blizzard bags on snow days. Why don’t students want to complete a school day of work at home when it will help them in the end?

The principle of Spaulding High School, Justin Roy, provided that the first day the students had a blizzard bag they got 72% throughout the whole district. This means that we will have to make up a day at the end of the year. Quickly, teachers started to enforce the students to do their work online stating that they will be marked absent from the class if they didn’t. Once that happened, day two had 89% and day three had 88%. With a little push, they were able to receive the reward they worked for.

Making students complete work at home can lead to many different problems. Some students may not be able to access technology to do it online or teachers will even take advantage of the day and give them too much work. They are given three days after the snow day to complete it, but the work should be no more than ninety minutes long. If students can’t access the work online, they could possibly stay after to get the work done the following day. There is usually no class time given to students to work on the blizzard bags, so the 80% allows those few 20% of students who can’t/don’t do it be marked absent.

At the end of the year, students don’t do much work in class besides getting caught up on missing work, so is it really worth the extra effort to get it done? Students can use the snow days as a way to catch up on work if they’re behind in a class instead of doing new work that may not even have to do with what they’re learning in the class. Blizzard bags may help with not increasing the length of the school year, but are teachers making it fair? The school district has attempted to be open-minded by adding a snow day in between every three blizzard bag days. This allows students to have a break from doing work at home when school is cancelled. If more students knew the blizzard bag days were above 80% and no longer have to be made up at the end of the year, maybe their attitudes will change towards blizzard bags.

Article by Haleigh Reilly