Remote school days at Boothbay Region Elementary School (BRES) could look a little different this winter as new regulations from Maine Department of Education (DOE) require that students receive at least three hours of live, remote instruction. 

Previously, BRES used “Blizzard Bags” for pre-K through fifth grade. The bags were handed out before an expected storm. According to Alternative Organizational Structure 98 Superintendent Robert Kahler, these bags contained review work that students could complete independently without power or internet. This is partly because these students cannot bring home school-provided technology, unlike sixth through eighth graders. The older students have school-issued iPads and are expected to access their work through Google Classroom. They also can check in with teachers during normal school hours, if needed.  

These new regulations raise the potential challenges of getting small children to focus during online instruction; possible lack of available devices at home; and students and/or instructors being without power. No change has been set in stone. Kahler said BRES is seeking to clarify if the previous system could fit into the new criteria.  

“We're still going to ask about utilizing the method that we've used before, the Blizzard Bags, the reinforcement learning, because it just seems, for whatever reason, we're having more of those unexpected closures than in the past,” he said.  

While the implementation of remote school days over a traditional snow day is meant to cut down on extending the school year, Kahler said there are other ways for BRES to make up lost time if it cannot complete a remote day. According to Maine DOE, schools must maintain 180 days in their calendar with 175 days set aside for instruction; an instructional day must be at least three hours long. The organization lists the following as acceptable ways to reschedule instruction time: shortening planned vacations, postponing the last day of school, extending the school day by one hour to make up missed time over a period, and conducting class on the weekends. 

Kahler said the school board can also apply to waive the minimum school year requirements from the state, which happened last year after the Lewiston shootings kept several staff members, including him, under shelter-in-place orders.