Brewer's Approach to Snow Days, 2020-2021

October 29, 2020

Dear Parents & Guardians,

This letter is to talk about the school district’s approach to snow days this winter. There has been some discussion in area districts, and I wanted to clarify where Brewer is landing on this issue. 

We are going to take our snow days as snow days as we have done in other years. The reason is that, with all the online learning our students have been engaged in, these occasional breaks provided by nature seem as if they should be just that, a break. That, for me, is about everyone’s social and emotional health. Additionally, many snow days include some power outages so that moving forward in a curriculum would likely leave certain students and households behind. 

As is usual, the Brewer School Department built five snow days into our school calendar, so if it appeared that we were going to go beyond that allotment we could talk about converting some late season snow days to remote learning. We’ll see when the time comes, but as we head into colder weather we’ll plan on keeping snow days as snow days. You will receive the same notifications that we have used in the past when we announce a snow day, either the evening beforehand (when a storm seems both large in size and certain to hit us) or, more typically, early morning of the actual snow day itself. 

Thanks and here’s to snow people who are depending on our students to bring them to life. 

Sincerely,

Gregg Palmer, Superintendent of Schools