QUESTION: Why didn’t the Alamance-Burlington school system shift to remote learning (i.e., online) when schools were closed because of snow on February 19 and 20? Other school systems in the Piedmont-Triad region switched to remote learning instead of students having to make up the lost instructional time.
ANSWER: Alamance-Burlington school officials did not submit a required remote learning plan to the State Board of Education by the deadline in order to have that option available for the current, 2024-25 school year, according Emily-Lynn Adkins, chief communications officer for ABSS.
The State Board of Education (SBE) requires all North Carolina public school systems to submit a remote instruction plan by July 1 of each year, before the next school year begins in late August, in order to shift to online instruction during inclement weather or other emergencies, as outlined in the state’s K-12 public education laws.
An existing provision in state law caps the number of allowable remote instruction days at a maximum of five per school year.
However, school systems experiencing significant hardship, such as those in western North Carolina that were devastated by Hurricane Helene in September 2024, have the ability to obtain a waiver to expand the number of remote instruction days.
“Without an approved plan, we are not eligible to use remote learning days during the 2024-2025 academic year,” Adkins told The Alamance News Monday.
ABSS subsequently contacted the SBE last fall, after Dr. Aaron Fleming took over as superintendent in September, to see if it would be possible to submit a remote learning plan after the deadline had passed. That option was not available, Adkins said.
Meanwhile, February 28, which had been designated as a teacher workday, was switched to a regular school day, school board members were informed last Monday night. ABSS officials have not yet announced a second makeup day.
ABSS shifted from counting days of instruction to counting hours of instruction several years ago.
The SBE permits the state’s 115 public school systems to build their school calendars around the required minimum number of instructional days for students (185 days with approximately 5½ hours of instruction per day) or a total of 1,025 hours over the course of the school year.
In order to have the remote learning option available for the next 2025-26 school year, ABSS officials are currently working to determine “technology needs and status of devices, including devices, charging cords, and hotspots,” Adkins said this week. “While we do hope to have remote learning as an available option in the future, there was never a district-wide directive to shift to remote learning this year,” she added.
