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Your input will help inform the MTA's future decisions

We’d like to get feedback from MTA members about what the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education refers to as “alternative structured learning day programs” — but you probably call “blizzard bags.”

The idea behind “blizzard bags” and similar programs is to provide an alternative to making up school days missed due to weather disruptions or other unplanned school closures. The MTA Board has some serious concerns about blizzard bags. But not everyone in our union agrees. That’s where your voice comes in.

First, please read the New Business Item adopted several months ago by the Board, which voted to request that local associations reject blizzard bags. It states: “The concept of ‘blizzard bags’ and other online alternatives to personal contact in the classroom de-professionalizes teaching and reduces the human interaction and collective experience of a classroom to e-mail communication and trivial ‘worksheet’ types of educational tasks.”

Here are some things to think about as you form your response:

• Do you think “blizzard bags” provide a useful way to help students and prevent extending the school year unnecessarily?
• Does your school or district have an alternative approach to making up snow days?
• Do you believe all students have equitable access to completing work assigned as part of an alternative school day — including students with disabilities, English learners, vocational students, Advanced Placement students, and others?
• Do you feel that teachers are provided with sufficient time, guidance and technology (if required) to develop and support the alternative school day program?
• How are members of the non-teaching staff affected or included in the alternative day — for example, counselors, nurses, and education support professionals?
• Have parents been involved in the discussion?
• Do you think that blizzard bags could be used to usher in “online education” and “competency-based” education schemes in your school?
• Do you worry that some staff members at your school could be replaced by “alternative structured learning day programs”?

Help guide our activism on this matter by sharing your thoughts. The deadline is Friday, March 15. A sampling of the responses we receive will be posted on the MTA website.