Historic Snowstorm Hits Champaign, District Responds with E-Learning
Karina Josephitis
Tuesday, February 1st, was a normal day like any other for students at Central High School. At around 1 pm, Unit 4 Superintendent Shelia Boozer sent out an email informing the U4SD community of upcoming weather forecasts for a snowstorm. The email included that, “due to the projected weather forecast for Wednesday, February 2, 2022, Champaign Unit #4 Schools will have a full remote instructional day.”
With such a big storm coming in the west direction, the U4SD board had to quickly decide on what needed to be done. In an email, Ms. Moore, Chief Communications Officer, gave some information on the decision; “after consulting with a number of staff and colleagues across the county, Superintendent Boozer made the announcement as soon as it was practical on February 1st. This gave staff and students time to prepare accordingly.”
On February 1st, U4SD students began doing a shortened schedule of E-learning on Zoom, something students are quite familiar with. The next day, about 4-5 inches had fallen.
Shortly following this decision to go remote, the U4SD district made the decision to cancel school for the next two days as “snow days”. There was only one short day of E-learning for the students while the other two remained snow days where school was fully canceled.
Ms. Moore elaborated by stating “making a decision that impacts so many people is something Dr. Boozer doesn’t take lightly. She knows that no matter what she decides in a situation like this, individual students and families are going to be impacted differently.”
Students experienced their school day at home very differently from one another, especially considering the big snowstorm. Within the decision making process of canceling school Thursday and Friday, why wasn’t it just set to be e-learning instead?
Ms. Moore explained, “in collaboration with nearby school districts, it was determined that a combo of E-Learning and traditional Snow Days would be appropriate. After the initial E-Learning Day, more snow was predicted and this could have impacted power lines, interrupting an E-Learning Day. The two additional Snow Days also gave staff and students time for self-care.”
The day of E-learning was a flashback to mid-quarantine 2020. Every student has their own opinion on E-learning. Maria Ouinissi, a Sophomore at Central High School, shared how she feels about E-learning: “I love online school! I feel more relaxed and happy while learning. It’s like a break, I would enjoy it if we had more E-learning days randomly in the week. It’s such a nice refresher.”
How most students spent their snow days differed from student to student. Maria shared how she spent her days off: ”I had woken up a bit early the first day because I’m so used to the school schedule and honestly I just couldn’t sleep anymore. That morning me and my sister went sledding, when we went home the roads were still pretty bad.”
U4SD students got a chance to stay home and enjoy a break from school during this cold and fluffy winter, which has paid off some good for students.