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Snow day no longer day off for some South Carolina students

ANDERSON, S.C. — Students in one South Carolina school district will still have work to do even when it snows.

Anderson School District 5 is the first district in the state to eliminate snow days with what it calls eLearning days. When the roads are too icy for buses, teachers will send assignments to their students' computers and can even monitor their progress online.

"No longer will we need to run buses mid-June for a makeup day that only a quarter of our students attend," Superintendent Tom Wilson told the Anderson Independent-Mail .

The state Education Oversight Committee gave the district permission in May to serve as a pilot program for no more snow days.

The district will announce the eLearning day just like a snow day so students know the school buildings are closed.

The assignments don't require internet service and any students without power or with a technology issue will have five days to complete assignments.

Anderson School District 5 has spent $11 million on computers for students in the past five years and these remote learning days help them get a better return on that investment, Wilson said.

The program also helps parents because the school calendar will be firmly in place to plan vacations and arrange child care.

"From an educator's standpoint, it's easy to plan for the expected. It's the unexpected things, like snow days, that disrupt schedules and teaching plans," Robert Anderson Middle School principal Leonard Galloway said. "This will enable teachers to stay on schedule."

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Information from: Anderson Independent-Mail, http://www.andersonsc.com

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