Harford County Public Schools officials want to replace three snow makeup days next school year with virtual learning days. But the change could cost the school system $200,000, making some wonder whether the plan is worth it.

All public school students are issued laptop computers, but not all students have internet access at home. The $200,000 price tag is for the district to purchase internet hot spots for those students.

The proposed plan was discussed at Monday’s school board meeting. The school system has already planned six makeup days in the 2024-25 calendar, if unplanned days off are necessary due to poor weather conditions. The proposal states that after the school system has used all three of the in-person makeup days, the remaining three would be made up via online learning. In addition, at least four hours of the virtual learning days would be synchronous — with live, real-time instruction from a teacher via Microsoft Teams.

Last year, Harford schools had six in-person inclement weather makeup days planned in the calendar and used five of them.

Virtual learning days would be announced one day before the school closures to ensure that students take their computers home, and each assignment given to students would be due 10 days after the virtual learning day.

Harford County Public Schools Chief of Staff Katie Ridgway presented the draft plan to the board and said the benefits of implementing a virtual learning plan for inclement weather closures would be a reduced possibility of extending the school year more than three days, and no impact or changes to state testing dates, regardless of closures.

Board members questioned the value of spending $200,000 for three virtual learning days, referring to the school system’s recent budget challenges that resulted in the loss of over 150 positions across the district. They questioned whether the increased cost for a hot spot that could potentially not even be used if inclement weather closures do not occur, would be worth the financial stretch.

“We are talking about three days for $200,000 a year,” said the board’s newest appointed member, Mark Korn. “It’s a lot of money for three days.”

Ridgway acknowledged that there is no guarantee that the hot spots would solve connectivity issues for all students since other counties in Maryland have cited issues with reaching all students “with fidelity.”

According to Ridgway, 75% of staff members who responded to a survey last year said they are in favor of a virtual learning plan; 79% of parents and guardians who responded said they would be in favor of virtual learning.

Despite the support, Harford Schools did not implement a virtual learning plan last school year because of “operational challenges,” Ridgway said.

She said the draft plan that was proposed to the board was crafted with the input of 1,520 school staff and 3,195 parents and guardians, as well as professional groups within the school system.

The draft plan is in a 30-day public review period to gather additional feedback. Board members are expected to vote on the plan Sept. 22.

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