On the week of January 26, through January 30, the school transitioned into a FID week that would last four days. A FID day is an acronym for Flexible Instruction Day which means that students do not go to the school building but still learn on that day. The FID week was due to a large snowstorm that was predicted far in advance and was highly anticipated. Roads were frozen, and Freedom received a total of 15.8 inches of snow, which was a record high for the Area in over 20 years. Dangerous conditions are mostly to blame for the four day FID week.
“I think there are two big benefits. If you take an entire week off from school, kids aren’t learning anything, and we already had two weeks off at Christmas. You get back in the routine in January, trying to get kids used to doing work, reading, and completing assignments again. To take another week off would’ve been tough academically,” Mr. Griffith, middle school principal, said.
Mr. Griffith explains that if middle school students had those four days off instead of doing a remote learning day, it would depreciate students academically. When a remote learning day is announced, kids will still get the opportunity to learn. And after getting comfortable with the school environment, having a total of five days off would have been rough. Students also had Friday, January 30, off and it was an in service day for teachers. That takes away the in service day originally scheduled for March 16, so it will now be a regular day for teachers and students.
“Then, you also have to look at the school building schedule. We’d have to make up all those days eventually, which would mean spring break being shorter. And sometimes you even have to put them on at the end of the year. So it would leave a negative academic impact to have four days in a row all off from school,” Mr. Griffith explained.
If all five days were taken off, they would eventually have to be made up later in the year. This could potentially make spring break shorter, and the school drag further into June. This could also shorten summer break as well.
“The state allows five so-called FID days. So as long as you can provide instruction somehow to the kids. For example, it could be sending work home, or, in our case, virtual. You get five of those granted from the state. There may be a way to have more virtual days if necessary,” Mr. Griffith stated.
State limitations are absolutely present when it comes to having FID days. The state of Pennsylvania allows for five FID days. These FID days are classified as any day that is not in a school building or environment, but students are completing any type of work.
“The virtual days we had technically wouldn’t be considered a FID Day, but rather a remote learning day. I know our new superintendent sent out some information to parents and teachers, explaining the difference and making sure everyone understood,” Mr. Griffith said.
“The virtual learning environment is hard to adapt to sometimes, because kids could be searching for other stuff while they’re supposed to be working, and the teacher doesn’t quite have that control that they generally have in the real classroom.” Mr. Griffith said.
There are many risks associated with switching between remote learning days and live days. And also the potential for kids to not pay attention to the teacher, do any of their work, or not having internet access at home.
“The decision of having a FID [day] ultimately is made by our school superintendent. He’ll get input from others on the admin team. We have a director of buildings and grounds, Gary Mortimer, who gets things cleaned up around the building. And the maintenance crew is also a big factor when it comes to deciding whether to have a FID day or not.” Mr. Griffith explained.
