Duluth School District Adds an Alternative for Snow Days
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DULUTH - Duluth school officials are concerned about students missing school after eight days were cancelled because of weather last year.
The last winter had the most school cancellations since the 1970s. Officials have been working hard to see how that can change.
"Anytime we can have our kids in school that's what we want to do. So, if we can delay school for two hours rather than call off a whole day we would much rather do that," said Duluth Schools Superintendent Bill Gronseth.
After eight snow and cold days last year, the Duluth School District went right to work to find a way to avoid students missing that many days of school.
Possible solutions were sent out to teachers, parents and students to see what would be most popular with families.
The most common response was to bring back 2-hour delays.
Gronseth says giving the plows a little more time to clear the streets before students would have to be at school will make all the difference in the long run.
"Well, you know, I think that everyone loves a snow day once in a while, but when we have eight of them it really does start interfering with the students education and the more time we can have them in school and focused, the better," said Gronseth.
Not every storm will allow a 2-hour delay and entire days may still be cancelled, but they say adding this option as a tool will only help in the goal to keep student in school this winter, but safe at the same time.
Parents should still look for these updates in the places they normally do, like on newscasts, station Web sites and on Twitter where Superintendent Gronseth will even tweet it.