Snow days are looking like a thing of the past for Indian Prairie School District 204, as board members passed E-learning days. The program will allow students to have at least a five-hour school day from the comfort of their home, when weather is inclement.
IPSD looked at nearby school districts’ E-learning programs to create their own, and explained that students could potentially benefit from it.
Potential Benefits of E-learning
“We saw some real connections to district priorities around social and emotional learning,” said Director of High School Core Curriculum. “Particularly the aspects of self-management and responsible decision making. Aspects of post-graduate included, flexibility, adaptability, and communication. Those are things that we want from our students as they come through our systems and they get a chance to practice those in real life.”
School officials said a students’ course work on E-learning days will be at the discretion of teachers. But one parent voiced concerns about the idea of the program.
A Parents’ Doubt About The Program
“I feel like this could work amazing at a high school district, but in a community unit school district I just think that elementary kids are missing out,” said 204 parent Laura Macleod.” I think that parents still have to take off and if they have to work from home and they’re also trying to make sure their elementary school child is doing work […] I just think kids learning happens best in person in class in front of a teacher.”
District 204 officials echoed Macleod’s sentiments in regards to kids learning best in the classroom and will use E-learning days only when necessary.
“This does not mean that we’re going to take off more snow days because now we have this option. We still value as a district teachers in front of our students that are doing the E-learning days,” said Board Member Mark Rising.
The district will still have five emergency days available and if needed they’ll be made up at the end of the year.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
