Code Orange Is The New Code Red
As the winter weather approaches, Prince William County schools take on different perspectives on the upcoming closings.
In previous years Prince William County Schools have been known for having many school closings. According to a college freshman that went to high school in Fairfax County, he quoted “ Prince William County tends to have more schools closing than us.”
Superintendent Heather Graf, sent out a letter introducing a new “Code Orange” where instead of taking the day off like previous years, we work asynchronously on our computer, meaning teachers can post in Canvas what work needs to be done for the day.
The new code orange causes a lot of new ideas and perspectives this winter season. An article on Inside Nova says “New Superintendent LaTanya McDade, who began her role in July, moved from Chicago Public Schools.” Students, staff, and parents are predicting that the superintendent of Chicago will be stricter on school closing due to snow.
Referencing a map that shows how many inches of snow there is to be needed for parts around the country, Chicago needs 24 inches of snow to close compared to northern Virginia which only needs one. This helps predict how lenient our new superintendent will be.
The code orange will officially be applied to Prince William County by next year. “Prince William would be the first division in Northern Virginia to announce an end to full snow days.” Our county will change in a way no other Northern Virginia County has seen before.
Students around Woodbridge High School also think that Code Orange won’t be effective because many students won’t do their work.” a quote from a sophomore student about the new decision.
Another perspective we need to take account of is our school teachers. An English teacher at Woodbridge says, “I think snow days are great. I understand, especially as a teacher, that they can be frustrating disruptions to planning, but they are a chance for us to pause and take care of ourselves and, more importantly, are necessary for the safety of our staff and students.”
Snow days can be viewed as a day to relax and self-care and evaluate ourselves. As students and teachers, the school year can be a lot for students. A lot of teachers and students view this, and they are very grateful for an opportunity to take a break and relax.
As for Code Oranges, students say “Not a lot of people will do their work especially if they don’t do it at school, they wouldn’t do it at home.” Most students get distracted by procrastinating their work and according to the school, Superintendent grades went down last year because of online learning. Therefore, asynchronous learning on snow days can cause students to procrastinate more.
Overall, snow days are changing in Prince William County regardless. We should take a moment to evaluate the new history we are making in the next upcoming school year.
