KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Monday's snowy weather brings up questions about how school districts across the Kansas City metro will handle snow days.
School leaders at Rockhurst High School decided to opt for a virtual day for students. Families received notice of the virtual day around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
Principal Father Vincent Giacabazi said about 95% of the school's students are learning in-person and have the technology needed to switch to a virtual day if needed. However, virtual days won't be the case every time.
"Let's say that it's blizzard-like conditions and it's just difficult to leave the house or internet goes down," Giacabazi said. "I think we would call those days just blank snow days as traditionally understood."
Parent Amy Beachner Hiles said she appreciates the steps Rockhurst took to prioritize student safety.
"It demonstrates the care and concern for teenage drivers. I have a 16-year-old and a 14-year-old who are a junior and a freshman at Rockhurst," Hiles said.
Hiles said her sons have responded well to virtual learning.
"It is not something I would want them to do every day," Hiles said. "My freshman certainly needs more structure and my junior in particular needs a lot of the social, but in the situation and circumstance where it is necessary or needed, I appreciate that they have the opportunity to learn synchronously virtually."
In the Shawnee Mission School District, Chief Communications Officer David Smith told 41 Action News there's no set plan, but the district will likely take a similar approach as Rockhurst.
Smith said the added option of being able to have virtual days is an advantage to the district, especially this year when the district pushed back the start of the school year, which also delayed the end of the school year.
"Not adding additional days at the end of school more than we already have, I think everybody would applaud that," Smith said. "We want to be able to keep teaching. When we have an interruption in our learning plans that creates its own challenges."
Olathe Public Schools is still working to finalize its snow day plans. The Turner Unified School District, which currently has students in a hybrid learning model, plans to use remote learning for snow days.
