Manage Delivery
When Wichita students return to school Wednesday – after four consecutive snow days that bookended a weekend – they may experience some turbulence on re-entry.
“We know they’ll be wiggly, maybe still in that cabin-fever mode,” said Alicia Thompson, assistant superintendent of elementary schools for the Wichita district.
“But we want parents to know that we’re excited and ready to have their children back,” she said Tuesday. “We hope they can get to bed on time tonight so they can be ready and eager to learn.”
Wichita school officials announced Tuesday evening that school would be in session Wednesday, but that buses could run late because of the rough condition of some side streets.
Thompson said the snow days will postpone state assessment tests at some schools. But, “We have a large window for our testing season, so we can move those back” without much trouble, she said.
Teachers’ more immediate concern, especially with young children, will be helping them readjust to school routines and rules.
“We’ll make sure we’re reviewing our procedures the way we do after any other extended holiday, like spring break or Christmas break,” Thompson said.
“When the children have been away for a while and out of the regular routine, you just need to remind them.”
Student routines will be out of whack quite a bit this month and next.
Between the Presidents Day holiday, in-service days, snow days, a non-teaching duty day and spring break, Wichita students will attend only 12 days of school between Feb. 16 and March 25. Some will have less class time because of early-release days during parent-teacher conferences.
Teachers “have pacing guides and those kinds of things, but they’re always flexible and consider things that happen,” such as snow days, Thompson said. “They’ll have to make adjustments (to lesson plans), but we do that all the time.”
District and school administrators, meanwhile, spent much of Tuesday rescheduling state tests, concerts, bond project celebrations, parent-teacher conferences and other events.
The administrative team at one school delivered backpacks of food to needy children who didn’t get those deliveries over the weekend, said district spokeswoman Wendy Johnson.
