Shouldn't we use the online school system for other building closures?

To the Editor:

I am an eight grader at Sparta Middle School, and like most schools throughout New Jersey and America, we have taken to doing classes online through Google Classroom and Google Meets due to the current pandemic. Overall, online classes have been going pretty well. We have continued to have new lessons and practicing with the knowledge we have obtained.

This situation got me thinking: if we can continue with school during a quarantine, then what’s stopping us from continuing school during other circumstances that can keep us from going into school? Now I know that this may sound controversial, but hear me out. Each time we get a snow day or something, then it is a day taken out of summer break, which no one likes. A teacher’s contract only lets them teach until June 30th, and the last few years we have come very close to that date while still needing to finish our school year. Meanwhile, students hate it when we are so close to a long break and the weather is great out, but we still need to be in school. However, if we continue to teach and learn from our houses, then we can technically have that day of school, and snow days wouldn’t affect the summer at all.

Now, some may argue that snow days are supposed to be an unexpected break during the winter months of school. But implementing the in-quarantine school schedule wouldn’t change this that much. Several of my classmates, myself included, have pointed out that we have been finishing our schoolwork for the day in about two to three hours, if not in less time. And even then each period has been 20 minutes, and with 8 periods in a day, that is still less than 3 hours. Therefore school will not take up too much of the day, and students and teachers will still have plenty of time to enjoy their day off.

Finally, probably the biggest problem with this idea is the fact that power outages often happen on the same days that we get off from school. Depending on how many power outages have occurred, then the school should judge whether or not to have assignments. However, on any other occasion where we might need to stay home from school, I don’t see any reason why we can’t continue school on off-days with a lighter workload and maybe a few classes over Google Meets.

Shea Harrison

Sparta