ELGIN, Ill. (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The 37,000 students in Illinois’ second largest school system must be happy, as their superintendent is talking about the option of “snow days" this winter.
There's no snow on the horizon now, but Elgin District U-46 Superintendent Tony Sanders said that should there be enough snowfall or dangerously cold temperatures this winter to keep children away from school, “snow days” will not be remote learning days.
“I think this year more than any other years, students and families should enjoy the magic of a snow day," Supt. Sanders said.
Sanders grew up in Nevada where “snow days” were rare, but he said they’re kind of a right-of-passage in the Midwest.
“There is something to a snow day that, I think, every child should experience at least once in their life, and so whether or not we get snow will be the next big question," he said.
To have remote learning when extreme weather forces everyone to stay home, school districts needed to get state permission by Sept. 1, and Dr. Sanders decided not to push for it. He acknowledged some districts decided to have students learn remotely on days that would have, otherwise, been a “snow day,”
Sanders said there’s not the infrastructure in place for students who need specialized help and it wouldn’t be fair to them to have remote learning for the rest of the student population. He said that would put them behind their peers.
On Sanders’ Facebook page, one person responded saying the superintendent had just cemented his “hero” status to students everywhere.
“It’ll give them one more reason to tweet me any time that there’s flurries possible," said Dr. Sanders.
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