For years, students around the halls of Liberty High School have noticed the supposed leniency in how often District 49 calls snow days compared to District 20. According to the official District 49 site, they typically rely on local news for updates on Inclement weather; leading as a key factor for their constant weather cancelations.

Liberty High School dean and former District 49 teacher Leah Phelps stated, “D49 is notorious for taking snow days and two-hour delays way before other districts and way more often than other districts. D49 will also, in fact, call weather decisions way before other districts at times so that it will seem extreme to others.”

Road conditions are a major factor in snow days; different students feel District 20 occasionally makes unsafe calls because of its strict snow day policy. Former Vista Ridge student and current Liberty junior Gia Serene said,” With Vista, snow days were assigned at even the slightest bit of snowfall…While at Liberty, there’s less concern for snow days. Even on days when they should be taken into consideration.”

While snow days may seem extreme, snow conditions in other parts of the state are sometimes worse than in the Liberty-Briargate area. As Phelps shared, “Out in Falcon and Peyton, the drifts of snow get so large, and there are also not always paved roads out there. So, there is a lot to take into consideration when making choices. At the end of the day, no matter what is decided, there will always be someone who is not happy with the decision on either side.”

“Each District does its own thing when they want and how they want. D49 calls for snow days and weather delays sooner than D20. D20 calls it super late. It is a difficult balance between safety of students and staff and the contact time lost,” Phelps explained.

However, District 49’s seemingly less strict snow day policy came at a price. An audit against District 49 resulted in millions of dollars reimbursed back to the state for their respective students not meeting the funded amount of contact hours at school.

In order to make sure contact hours were reached, District 49 schools were forced to make notable changes to their school schedule to ensure this problem wouldn’t happen again. “From having to start school 20 minutes earlier to cutting lunch down to 25 minutes… [the new District 49 schedule] created chaos, stress, tardiness, and a less enjoyable school environment. Pair this with snow days, and in my opinion, it’s a bad situation,” Serene stated.

The earlier start and shortened lunch allow D49 to continue their snow day policy without having to go to school more on dangerous roads, which is a common misconception among students.

Revisions to District 20 school schedules have also been made, such as Liberty High School’s new finals schedule that now features a full 7-hour school day, and these changes are now being implemented to save their schools from a similar fate. 

Although snow days allow for time away from work or school, there are benefits to being in school more as well. “Who doesn’t like a snow day? D49 calls way more, so I sort of miss that, but I love what I do, and I love seeing the students, so I don’t mind being here when the kids are here too,” Phelps said.

Video and Information credit: District 49 superintendent warns calendar changes were driven by state audit; board agrees to fast track decision | Citizen Portal