Many wondered if remote learning would kill snow days. To Colorado students’ relief, they were wrong.

A flurry of lessons awaited kids within the ankle-deep snow of Denver’s Ruby Hill Park on Thursday morning as flakes swirled all around them.

One particularly important lesson that doubles as a lifesaving skill: A sled can be used as a shield during a snowball fight.

That was among the most useful pieces of wisdom Luis Rodriguez passed on to his two children, one of whom was busy sculpting snowballs so big they might have been better suited for a snowman. 

“We all decided let’s all jump in a car, drive out to Ruby Hill, let the kids have some fun and, of course, we also secretly have some fun,” Rodriguez said while braving the winter elements with his family during a highly anticipated snow day.

To the relief of many Colorado students, snow days — which some thought would become a distant memory of the past with the rise of remote learning — have survived the pandemic with cold weather gusto. 

Districts across the Front Range shut down schools Thursday, with some also planning to remain closed Friday as snowfall totals ranged from 8 inches to 2 feet by late Thursday afternoon. Schools could have potentially shifted to online learning to prevent students from losing out on more instruction time, returning to Chromebooks and Zoom as they did in the pandemic’s early days. But most districts hit hard by snow — from Denver Public Schools to Harrison School District 2 in Colorado Springs — decided to give students and teachers the day off.

Harrison School District 2 opted for a snow day for a mixture of reasons, including the safety of students and staff. Mental well-being was a consideration, too, Superintendent Wendy Birhanzel said. “Snow days are needed now more than ever.”

A snow day sets aside time for students to step outside and build a snow fort or spend all day in their pajamas with their family and friends, Birhanzel said.

“This is your downtime of being a kid, and we’re going to give you that advantage,” she said.

Most districts opted for a snow day but at least one turned to online learning

Every student in the Harrison School District — which educates nearly 12,400 kids in preschool through high school — has a device, but not all students have access to the internet or a stable enough internet connection to cater to more than one child, Birhanzel said. Additionally, many students take over for their working parents and care for younger siblings.

“The last thing we need to do is say, ‘do your math or reading,’” Birhanzel said.

The district, which serves a high population of kids from low-income families, also never considered remote learning over a snow day because of what Birhanzel calls “an unreasonable expectation” that online schooling thrusts onto teachers and a worry that the quality of learning will suffer.

“The reality is for a teacher to teach in person and then asynchronous or virtual is really impossible,” she said. “They can’t do it from both worlds. If the pandemic taught us anything, it taught us that not every instructional person can do online teaching and kids do not learn all virtually.”

She hopes the snow day is as restorative for teachers as it is for students.

“It gives us all a chance to breathe and get caught up,” Birhanzel said, “and come back and do our best work for kids.”

In Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, snow days have also once again become “the norm,” district spokesperson Scott Pribble said. 

“Students no longer have school-issued computers at home, so expecting everyone to quickly pivot to online learning isn’t equitable,” Pribble wrote in a text message to The Colorado Sun.

When inclement weather pops up, he said, the district has the option to start classes late, release students early or close school. 

Neither DPS nor Harrison School District 2 will need to make up class time lost Thursday with an additional day at the end of the school year as they will still meet the amount of classroom time mandated by the state.

Meanwhile, Academy School District 20 in Colorado Springs was among the few districts to continue classes online Thursday. The district already used two “traditional snow day closures” this school year, according to information in a district email. Elementary schools were closed, but middle and high schoolers were required to attend classes remotely and started two hours later than normal.

More than 12,500 students in the district of more than 26,600 students in preschool through high school, connected to online learning on Thursday, a record since remote learning in 2020, according to district spokesperson Krystal Story.

A giant snowball turned physics lesson 

After the pandemic cut into learning time for students across Colorado, the race has been on for schools to catch them up in classes. But teachers like Christina Gillette Randle, who leads an educator pathway course at Sierra High School and Harrison High School in Colorado Springs, don’t worry about kids losing out on more class time during a snow day.

Gillette Randle, who has been teaching for 21 years, compares remote learning to the days when a teacher must rely on a substitute teacher — which often interferes with student learning — and the chunks of time students spend taking state standardized tests.

“If we’re going to worry about lost time of learning, why are we doing CMAS (the Colorado Measures of Academic Success exams)?” she said. “That stops learning completely. You’re not learning anything new. You’re testing for hours.”

She also questions the quality of remote learning, describing it as a way to simply “check the box of hours.”

And a snow day doesn’t mean that all learning comes to a halt.

After visiting Ruby Hill Park in Denver, Rodriguez and his wife were determined to help their kids — who attend Steele Elementary School in Denver — polish their penmanship, read and study “tricky” words.

“I think the kids can learn a lot more after they have a fun morning like this,” Rodriguez said as his kids sled down a gentle slope with snow-laced evergreens touching the ground on either side of them.

Slowing down and taking in their surroundings is just as important a lesson that Rodriguez wants his kids to grasp — something a snow day can teach them perhaps better than a school day.

“It’s important to get things done and succeed in life and learn and go to school,” he said, “but it’s also important to live life. And so I think there’s a balance there that we try to show them as they’re growing up that I hope they carry on when they’re adults.”

Audrey Harris, a Denver sixth grader who is homeschooled, also carved time out of the day to romp around in the snow with her dad at the park, where they rolled a snow boulder down the slope.

Her parents originally planned to keep up with their normal homeschool schedule. That changed when the morning showed promise for sledding for the first time this winter.

“We’ll probably have better memories than just sitting at home doing school,” Audrey, 12, said.

Her dad, Alex Harris, wasn’t worried about sacrificing time poring over books at home for a few hours outside, particularly since his daughter has a lot of flexibility as a homeschooled student and learns year-round.  

“Obviously learning is important,” Harris said. “But I think the experience of getting out, movement, making memories especially with your family even in the middle of the school year is really valuable and adds a benefit that is worth a snow day here and there.”

Plus, the pair also found their own unexpected lessons in the snow.

“We’re here learning physics pushing enormous snowballs down a hill,” Harris said. “So that’s hands-on learning that you wouldn’t get in a classroom.”