VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTHI) – It has been a rough week of winter weather in Vigo County, and school corporation officials have had to use two of their three allotted “E-Learning” days.
E-Learning days are reserved for extreme weather conditions or other situations that would make it unsafe for students to attend in person. According to state law, each school is allocated three “E-Learning” days per year.
Vigo County School Corporation Superintendent Chris Himsel says that it is always a difficult decision when deciding how to use these “E-Learning” days. Officials have to balance numerous factors, and do what is in the best interest for the safety of students, parents, and teachers.
“We’ve got a winter weather guideline on our website that helps walk through what we do in terms of snow, what we do in terms of ice, or fog, or wind-chills” Himsel tells News Ten.
Himsel says that if winter weather continues to be an issue over the coming weeks, it is possible that the school corporation might use their last E-Learning day. In the event that the school corporation calls off school days past these allotted E-Learning days, the school corporation would tack those days onto the end of the regular school year.
“If we have another storm that causes us to go beyond the number of E-Learning days we are allocated, it would mean adding days in June, beyond what our last day of school is” says Himsel.
Himsel says this will be less of a problem in the future. That’s because the schools have built more wiggle room into it’s future school calendars.
“In our future calendars, we’ve taken steps to build a little more flexibility, but this is the last of the calendars that has been previously decided” says Himsel.