New Remote Day Policies: A Turning Point for Learning

A picture taken of sophomore Myra Stern’s snowy backyard on a cold, remote day last year.  Weather like this has led to students having to take out their Chromebooks and log into a Google meet for school instead of being in person. Photo creds: Myra Stern 

Ria Titus, Staff Writer for The Powderhorn

The beloved snow days of the past filled with hot cocoa and movies have been replaced by the echoes of teachers’ voices on Chromebooks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, computers were used for online school when students could not be in the classroom. The increased use of technology for school purposes resulted in the switch from snow days to remote days. 

In the High Country, snowfall never seems to stop in the winter. In the past, this weather has led to an increase in remote days. Last year, the high school had so many remote days that it impacted students' learning. This year, the Board of Education made some changes to remote days to increase student engagement and learning. One of these changes was the inclusion of FLEX during remote days. 

“FLEX is used by some students and some teachers who need some extra one-on-one help, and so the decision was made for that to be included on remote days, " said Dr Bailey, assistant principal at Watauga High School. “We get really off of our FLEX cycle and our FLEX offerings if we have a significant number of remote days, like we had last year”.

The limit on the amount of remote days Watauga County can have each year is fifteen. Other counties in NC are only allowed 5 remote days. Last year, Watauga County Schools had a surplus of inclement weather that led to them using almost all of the available remote days. FLEX was added to remote days this year to help students stay on track, to give them time to ask questions and work on assignments. However, some students are still getting used to this inclusion. 

“I feel like FLEX isn't compatible with online schooling because it's usually time to ask questions and time to get help, " said sophomore Kiran Dhungana, “but it's kind of hard to do that when everyone has specific things that they need, and it’s one big call, so you're disturbing everyone else that needs to work. It was just kind of useless honestly.”

Many students felt similar to Dhungana. Administration has now been clarified that the meet code for FLEX is the room number of the teacher you are assigned to. However, many students did not attend FLEX on the first remote day due to confusion on how to get in, or lack of wanting to go. However, Google Meet acts as a classroom, and if you don’t show up, there are consequences, just like a normal school day.

“If a student physically leaves campus and they are a driver, then they get to have experience of spending a day in ISS, and their parking pass is taken for 10 days, and they lose their privilege of having a vehicle on campus, because obviously, if you're going to leave and miss class and skip it, then you're not being responsible,” said Dr. Coleman Bailey, Assistant Principal. “So it's the same way for remote now.”

Another change to the remote days is the inclusion of a camera-on policy. While this may put students who are impoverished or who have multiple siblings in difficult situations, policymakers feel this is a good way to ensure students are paying attention during real instruction time. Since remote days are counted as school days, student engagement is expected. 

“Cameras weren't allowed on for a long time because we didn't want kids to be comparing what each other had in bedrooms, or where kids lived, or those types of things,” said Dr Bailey. “Now you can pretty much change your backdrop to anything you want to. Technology has improved, and for us to truly count it as a day of learning, students need to be engaged, and they need to have their camera on.”

Chromebooks don’t have the reputation for stability, so students were worried that their computers would be slow and difficult to navigate because of the cameras. Those issues seem to have been fixed, so having your camera on won't cause lag. There is even a solution for students with a bad Wi-Fi connection.

“We can give you a hotspot that increases your Wi-Fi to allow you to be able to take classes where you need to,” said Dr Bailey. “ If your camera doesn’t work, you need to put in a Help Desk ticket and get that corrected.”

Students may still feel that remote days don’t meet their needs. It is harder for teachers to demonstrate mathematical problem-solving or for students to voice questions, even with the updates. 

“I think remote days often end up just being filler, so I don't know if there's any way to fix that, but I think it definitely makes all these rules kind of useless,” said Dhungana. 

Still, administrators feel that with all the tech problems seemingly solved, remote days should run smoothly. Additionally, all grades K-12 have the same lunch time, so there will be less chaos during lunch for many students with multiple siblings. While changes have been made to remote days, they are still not perfect. It is impossible to replicate a real school day on a screen, but school administrators are doing their best to accommodate every student.