BANGOR–In order to fulfill the required amount of days of instruction in the school year, Bangor High is planning to implement remote learning on days when the weather makes transportation to school difficult or dangerous.

The school is allowed five snow days to meet the planned end day of the school year. If any go unused, the school year ends earlier. However, three snow days have already been used this year. In the past, the school year has been pushed further into June more often than not. After the COVID-19 pandemic brought remote learning into education, many now view it as a way to avoid moving the school year’s fixed end date of Friday, June 16.

Teachers were recently told to prepare remote lessons that can be stored on students’ Chromebooks and retrieved when the devices are offline. These can be completed in the case of a remote learning day. These lessons have to be very broad in terms of subject matter since they need to be ready to go whenever a remote day occurs, regardless of where any given class actually is in its curriculum. Students completing these prepared lessons at home would qualify as a school day in the eyes of the state of Maine, allowing the last day of school to remain at its originally scheduled date.

Winter is coming to a close, but you can never be sure in Maine; if two more snow days are used, any following school closures will involve remote learning and the lessons teachers have prepared.