Loudoun County School Board Should Revisit Snow Days

Screenshot of Loudoun Countys Twitter announcement on school being closed due to snow on December 15, 2022.

Screenshot of Loudoun County’s Twitter announcement on school being closed due to snow on December 15, 2022.

Keira McDowell, Staff Writer

In one school year, the county designates an additional 15 built in snow days to the calendar. These days allow students to stay on track with their learning after closing school due to snow. It also helps the county meet the required 180 days or 990 hours of school required by the state.

However, even if all 15 days are not used, students and staff still have to come in for those extra days. This year Loudoun County only used one snow day, yet students and staff still had to come in for the additional 14 days of school.

In past years Loudoun County has rarely been close to meeting the amount of snow days designated. If this is the case, why should there be 15 days built into the schedule when they have never all been used?

Instead of needing to come in for these additional days, students and staff should instead be able to get additional days off in breaks or get out of school earlier.

Other systems could work as well. Some counties, such as Fairfax have a system where five snow days are designated each school year. Then, if there are additional snow days, instead of getting a day off, the school day will occur virtually. This way students and staff still get days off, do not have as many additional school days, and still have enough time for learning. Many other Virginia counties have similar policies.

The county should consider changing the snow day policy to reduce the amount of extra time students and staff are in school.