Over the weekend of Jan. 3, Kansas City was hit by its most significant snow storm since 1962, with the metro area receiving an average of 11 inches. This caused a large number of schools around the area to face closure—Olathe was no exception.
The district took a total of four snow days in total, within the first two weeks, using all of the district’s built in snow days for high school.
Olathe superintendent Dr. Brent Yeager addressed concerns about the possibility of extending the school year.
“We’re definitely getting close [to the amount of required school hours by the state] for high school—we probably wouldn’t add days to the school year, but there is definitely a possibility that we could add a few hours here and there to the school day,” Yeager said.
During the 2023-2024 school year, Olathe faced a similar situation, opting to have high school students start their day at 7:50 a.m. as opposed to 8:00 a.m. as they had been doing. If additional hours are needed this year, a similar adjustment could be made.
To reduce the amount of school students are missing for snow, the district came up with a new plan: late start days. On these days, high school students begin at 9:40 a.m. instead of 7:40 a.m.. Dr. Yeager detailed the district’s reasoning for implementing this plan of action.
“The late start days are really helpful because it gives the city time to get the roads and parking lots clear for students to safely get to school,” Yeager said.
On Tuesday Jan. 21, Olathe called its first “plan C” snow day, or delayed start day. Dr. Yeager detailed his opinion of how he thought it went.
“We’ve already received really good feedback on it—it’s definitely something I think we will do again,” Yeager said.
But Dr.Yeager wasn’t the only one affected by the snow days. Many parents and students spent their last day before second semester awaiting news of the school’s progress on Jan. 7.
“My initial reaction to school being canceled was excitement, I was honestly really just happy to have our break extended,” senior Hannah Rahe said. “But towards the end of the break I was kind of just ready to go back to school and get back into the routine of things.”
Many students spent their snow days in different ways. Some students, like Rahe, went sledding with friends. Others stayed in and watched Tv or slept. But senior Chloe Karnei spent her snow days a little differently.
Karnei had been in Texas visiting family over her winter break when her family heard about the winter storms heading for Kansas City.
“In an attempt to make it back before the storm, we changed our flight to be a day earlier and drove two hours to the Austin airport on January 4 and we were able to make connecting flights to Dallas,” Karnei said.
Once Karnei and her family landed in Dallas they discovered that all flights to KC had been cancelled due to the ice. They then spent the next two days stuck in Dallas experiencing cancellations and delays while exploring downtown, before finally making it home on Jan. 6.
“We then had to drive home while the highways were just getting cleared, the grocery store shelves were barren and all restaurants were closed,” Karnei said.
The first day of second semester was cancelled just as Karnei arrived home in Kansas, and as Rahe said students were wanting to get back into the routine of school.
“I was definitely relieved to finally have some time back at home considering I got back to Olathe on January 6 after my complicated trip home,” Karnei said. “But I really wanted to get back into a routine after break and that included getting back to school.”
