Ponca City Public Schools reports that several parents have asked about making up school after Snow Days are taken. As of this 10 seconds, students do NOT have to make up instructional time for Snow Day #2 on April 15 or Snow Day #1 on April 29, 2022.
“There were a few extra instructional hours built into the 2021-2022 calendar naturally,” said PCPS Superintendent Shelley Arrott. “We took one true inclement weather day, which does not need to be made up due to the extra instructional hours. The rest of the inclement weather days we took were Distance Learning Days, so they count as instructional days.”
“Many parents ask why we do not use Snow Days rather than Distance Learning days. The response to that question is simple. We live in Oklahoma and anything could happen, and many things have happened to this very district which led to loss of instructional days. Some examples include straight line winds, flooding, power outages and ransomware attacks. I am hopeful we never have to deal with other issues which could cause us to lose instructional time. However, as a district we must be proactive regarding those instructional hours so that we DO NOT get behind. With projects occurring over the summer for the next few years, we will need to begin the projects the second buildings are empty to complete them before school starts again in the fall.”
“I will continue to keep you informed, but this is the answer as of April 4, 2022,” said Arrott.
Next year, with the reduced calendar, there will NOT be enough instructional hours in the calendar to account for a day, other than the two Snow Days. “As long as we have power, we will go to Distance Learning on inclement weather days until we get through the BOND/CARES projects.”
