Legend has it, in order for there to be a snow day, it would require a minor miracle. Powell students experienced such a miracle Feb. 22.

An all-call went out to the entirety of Park County School District 1 that school was cancelled due to drifting snow. The celebrating, however, was short-lived when students and staff realized the day likely would need to be made up. Turns out another minor miracle occurred: The day will not need to be made up.

“Our last day of school will be on the 28th of May,” PCSD1 Superintendent Mr. Jay Curtis said in a recent email to the district, “meaning we have been granted a waiver for our snow day.” 

However, the waiver will not affect the contract days for teachers, who still will be required to be at school June 1 and then complete online training June 2 to prepare for next year. 

“[Training’s] such as blood borne pathogen, policy review, etc.,” Mr. Curtis said. “The admin team will be working out those details in the next few weeks, but those training’s will need to be completed by June 15 to get credit.” 

In addition to the policy regarding school days, Wyoming statute requires that students be in school for a minimum of 175 days. 

“Elementary students must be in school for a minimum of 900 hours,” Mr. Curtis added. “Middle school [requires] 1,050 hours and high School [requires] 1,100 hours. In order to be approved for an alternative calendar, you must meet the minimum hours.” 

However, there have been some changes to how snow days will work. However, this doesn’t mean that students won’t go to school at all on bad weather days.

“As a result of the snow day, we will be adopting a protocol of 2-hour delay as our first line of defense during inclement weather, as opposed to closure,” Mr. Curtis said. “It is certainly not lost on me that after we canceled school, we had a beautiful 50-degree sunshiny day! A 2-hour delay would have allowed us in school.”