Since the beginning of 2025, the Westminster community has suffered through a series of snow days caused by a variety of winter weather in the St. Louis region. With the weather finally starting to clear up, it is time to look back at the decisions made by the school administration. The largest decision that they made was the use of asynchronous online learning that was employed for two of the six missed days. This meant that students were supposed to be assigned short, brief assignments that would attempt to continue what we were learning in class. The asynchronous learning day was the right decision because February has a tight schedule already, Zoom meetings would not have worked with this group of students, and because it allows for teachers and students to have more flexibility with their work schedules. Micah Gall, Head of Academic Development, said:
“We reached a point just because of the total number of snow days combined with our calendar that had built in days off as we always do in the month of February. We just wanted teachers and students to have some semblance of momentum.”
Presidents’ Day, Academic Recovery Day, and more are several instances of times that we are already off of school in the month of February. These snow days definitely were not a big help to the teachers who only have so much time to teach their students. With all the predetermined days off, these asynchronous learning days allowed for a constant flow to still happen, keeping information on students minds, and making sure that they can recall it when returning. When considering the idea of working at home, some students may have flashbacks to the early beginnings of COVID, and the zoom classes that followed. However Zoom was not considered by Gall, who said:
“When you’re talking zoom for 950 students. 107 teachers. There’s a lot of moving pieces that go into that. It’s not a model that we’ve kept since COVID partly because of our experience during COVID we didn’t feel that it would’ve been the most effective way to go about it […] There’s a group of students here that were in elementary school during COVID, and they have never really been trained on what that looks like.”
COVID learning would have been just as ineffective for snow days as it was for the pandemic. The new students have not experienced the Westminster version of online learning, and having to teach that would be a huge setback, and would take up more time and effort than just doing an asynchronous learning day. The feat is too large for just a handful of missed days. The asynchronous learning days also gave teachers and students a chance to catch up that they would not have if the school had just called the days off. Adam Schelker, Junior, said:
“It can be hard to focus online all day, and the workload varied from day to day, making it hard to balance when to do what work. Mostly, the unpredictability of it was the hardest thing to work with as a student, but there was also a lot of flexibility that allowed me to enjoy other things throughout the day.”
Although it could be seen as more challenging this way, in the end, it is more beneficial due to the flexibility it provides. Sure, things were a little unpredictable to students like Schelker, but it is the tiny adjustments that everyone needs to make in order to not let the day go to waste. The most important thing is that the teachers are able to adjust quickly and efficiently. Gall said:
“Teaching is always about making adjustments, and so what teachers have to do in moments like this is figure out how to best move forward within their specific class. If that means shortening a unit, or expediting it in some way […] but teaching is always about what is the end goal in the class, and how do we best reach that end goal, and there is often a place in the year where adjustments have to be made.”
Now some may say that teachers will have to cut things out from their curriculum no matter what as a result of the snow days. It is a teacher’s job to know how to handle situations like this without losing the main aspects that build up the end goal of the school year. Gall said:
“We should still be in a pretty good place to get through the material that we need to get through […] I’m confident that they will be able to keep students on track to where they need to go.”
This will allow teachers to be able to cover the curriculum necessary by the end of the year. Although that is true there is still the worry that teachers were not continuing their units correctly and instead started side tracking. Schelker said:
“I would say the virtual learning days refreshed me about what we were doing in each class, but for the most part, it seemed like teachers had to come up with new assignments instead of continuing with their classes, which ultimately didn’t help us progress any further in the material.”
Although that may feel like the case, once again the teachers had to do this and were well aware of the possibility that things like this can happen and that they need to stay on top of things, and be ready. Gall addressed this when he said:
“We know fully that the online learning day does not replace an in class day, but we wanted to provide the opportunity for teachers to move forward on a small scale, and not totally die.”
Even though these smaller assignments could have been made up on the spot through preparation, they still help push forwards to accomplish work in class. No matter what the teachers are prepared and Gall made sure that was known. There is no worry in his mind, so students should not worry either. As for the decision of the asynchronous learning day, it was necessary for the sake of the academy’s academic momentum as a whole. At this point things are too late, and the decision allows for assignments to be less cramped as students continue to adjust and power through the upcoming months. The correct decision was made, and its effects will ripple as the school year continues and eventually wraps up.
