District to Implement Blizzard Bags

Under current state law, school districts are allotted five calamity days per school year. Additional calamity days means districts must make up those days. In 2011, a provision was created to grant schools permission to use blizzard bags to make up an additional three calamity days.

What are Blizzard Bags? Blizzard Bags are classroom assignments equivalent to a full day of instruction that are sent home with students or posted online. The Board of Education of any school district may submit to the Department of Education a plan to require students to access and complete classroom lessons posted on the district's web portal or website in order to make up days in that school year on which it is necessary to close schools for any reason specified in division (B) of section 3317.01 of the Revised Code in excess of the number of days permitted under sections 3313.48, 3313.481, and 3317.01 of the Revised Code. Typically, this plan must be submitted each year, prior to the first day of August. However, with the unforeseen weather conditions we have experienced this winter, an extension for these applications has been offered to districts.

The Groveport Madison Board of Education discussed and approved the application for the use of blizzard bags at the February board meeting. The administrative team, in collaboration with the teacher leadership members, worked through the application and provided the guidelines and provisions necessary to move forward with the plan.

The plan also has a provision to supply students with paper copies of the blizzard bags, which the district will utilize this school year. This plan will serve to make up time for three missed days of school. Teachers, in an upcoming professional development session, will prepare the paper copies that will align to current curriculum being covered in their classroom.

Blizzard bags will be ready and sent home with each student on Monday, March 10, 2014. Students will have until Monday, March 24, 2014, to complete and submit the assignments to their classroom teacher to receive a grade at the same rigor as any other assignment given by their teachers.

Going forward, the district plans to apply annually to the Ohio Department of Education to reinstate the use of blizzard bags in the district.
← BACK
Print This Article
View text-based website