In West Virginia, it is a very common occurrence for schools to experience days off due to weather during the winter, which can result in the addition of days to the end of the school calendar, meaning that students and teachers are required to make up these days off.
This year, Harrison County Schools have introduced a new way for students to make use of their days off at home. Harrison County schools have developed Ice Packets, which are small packages of work for students to do on their day off. Each class a student is taking will have an ice packet that has the required make-up work for that day. During these days, students will have a day off from classes while teachers are required to attend school on a delay. Teachers are required to report to the school in case some students or other family members need to discuss somethings. Teachers will be available to contact if any students or parental figures have questions. This time also gives teachers the opportunity to catch up on their own work. Although this is a great new program for students to make use of their days off; many students have mixed feelings towards these packets. Some students find that the packets have more or less work than they expected. Which results in many opinions about these ice pack days.
Emily Kyle, a senior at Lincoln, shared “I find the Ice Packs to be very helpful to students and teachers. If I wasn’t a senior, I’d prefer to do them so that my school year isn’t extended.”
Hannah Loar, another senior, disagrees with Emily. “I honestly don’t see the point. I find that the ice packets have more work for students than what we honestly might do on a daily basis.” She shared, “I would rather go the extra days.”