Snowville Elementary School

1-24-24

Dear Cougar Families,

As you all know, we had our first virtual learning day last Friday, January 19 due to extremely cold temperatures and some spotty snow squalls. It has come to my attention that many community members, including staff, students and parents/guardians were confused with the virtual learning day designation in regards to the requirements and expectations a day like this means to our school division.

First, I want to apologize to our school community for the confusion that this day caused. Based on your recent feedback, the leadership team met to discuss that feedback and, hopefully provide the proper information (requirements/expectations) so that everyone in PCPS understands what a virtual learning day means in our school division. We also want to communicate the reason for virtual learning days during school closings. The main reason for virtual learning days is to do our best to provide students the opportunity to be engaged in learning while out of school due to inclement weather or for some other odd reason. We are also concerned about the possibility of having to close school in the future due to inclement weather and having virtual learning days keeps us from having to make these days up during spring break or at the end of the year (we did have three regular snow days as we knew this was important to our students and families). We are trying our best not to have to take any days away from our spring break nor add days to the end of the school year. Designating virtual learning days helps us from having to make up days due to school closures and allows us to feed our school community during school closures.

Secondly, due to the lack of information that should have been shared with our entire school community regarding virtual learning days, I am making January 19 a practice virtual learning day ensuring that no students will be marked absent for that day or penalized academically for virtual learning day assignments that are incomplete or not submitted to the appropriate teacher (or staff member).

Finally, as we move forward, our entire school community will abide by the following requirements and expectations that come with future virtual learning days (please remember, unless unique circumstances mandate differently, all school closings for the remainder of the year will be virtual learning days):

 All K-8 students will complete paper packets assigned to them by their elementary teachers (specialty teachers too) and middle school team teachers as well as exploratory teachers. All students are required to return these assigned activities to the appropriate teacher by the next on campus school day to be counted present for the snow days and receive credit for the work. Students and families without paper packets should contact elementary and middle school building administrators immediately to receive them.

  All 9-12 students will complete assignments on Canvas, their online learning platform, for each class. Students are required to complete assignments to be counted present for the snow day and receive academic credit. Students without internet service need to contact Kim Alger at kalger@pcva.us or 540- 643-0230 and ask for paper packets as soon as possible.   Students returning assignments on time will be provided a class participation grade for their efforts. Students returning assignments on time with a graded score of 70% or more will receive an additional class participation grade as extra credit for completing the assignment(s) appropriately.   Central office and building administrators are available for questions regarding this information.

Sincerely,

Robert F. Graham

   Robert. F. Graham Superintendent