Virtual learning on snow days possible for Cedar Rapids students next school year

CEDAR RAPIDS — Students may have some virtual learning days next school year if in-person classes are canceled because of inclement weather in the Cedar Rapids Community School District.

The district’s proposed 2025-26 school calendar — presented Monday at a board meeting — includes 32.5 hours of possible virtual instruction for heat-related or winter weather-related cancellations.

If in-person school is canceled because of weather, it wouldn’t “automatically” result in a virtual learning day, said Linda Reysack, Cedar Rapids school employee who served as a member of the calendar committee.

  Buy Photo

“We are not going to create barriers for learning when we have to say, unfortunately, it’s better to stay safe and be at home,” said Eriece Colbert, another district employee who served on the calendar committee.

A virtual learning day would not necessarily be reliant on students having access to electronic devices, Colbert and Reysack said.

Reysack said educators could create “packets” to send home with students that include activities for families to do during a virtual learning day that aren’t reliant on having a computer or internet access at home. There also would be virtual learning activities for students who do have access to an electronic device, she said.

“We want to ensure a student doesn’t say, ‘Well, I didn’t have my device at home, so I didn’t do anything.’ We want to ensure there are opportunities for all learners at home to have materials and continue learning on a virtual day,” Reysack said.

In February, the Iowa City school board OK’d up to five days of virtual learning if inclement weather canceled school any more times during the 2023-24 school year. The district did not end up using any virtual days.

The state requires Iowa school districts to provide 180 school days, or 1,080 hours of instruction, each year. There are 60 hours built into the Cedar Rapids district’s’ 2025-26 calendar for inclement weather, including two makeup days on June 3 and 4, 2026.

A public hearing on the calendar is scheduled for the next board meeting at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Educational Leadership and Support Center, 2500 Edgewood Rd NW, Cedar Rapids. The calendar must be approved by the school board before adoption.

Here are other dates of note in the Cedar Rapids district’s proposed 2025-26 calendar:

The Cedar Rapids district’s calendar committee included parents, teachers, school administrators and a representative from the Cedar Rapids Education Association, the local teachers’ union.

The proposed 2025-26 calendar maintains professional learning days sprinkled throughout the year on either Mondays or Fridays when students will not have school.

For nearly a decade, Cedar Rapids schools had shortened the academic day for students one day a week to make time for staff professional learning. But the 2024-25 calendar moved away from that to make time for full-day professional development.

One of the staff professional learning days falls on Jan. 19, 2026, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Reysack called this a “Community Responsiveness Day” where employees will be given the opportunity to volunteer in the community and “do something they’re passionate about.”

There also are more days built into the calendar before the first day of school for staff learning. New teachers in the district begin pre-service Aug. 11-13, 2025. This is followed by a teacher directed day for all teachers Aug. 18, and professional learning Aug. 19-22.

“One of the things we heard consistently is teachers need more time in their classroom to prepare and get ready. So, we have additional time built in called teacher-directed days, where truly teachers have the opportunity to work in their classroom or with other colleagues in their building or across the district,” Reysack said.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com