Montgomery County Public Schools must have a Code Purple plan in place in case of closure due to weather conditions. Code Purple requires schools to participate in virtual learning when the impacting weather event is predictable, part of a multi-day scenario such as a blizzard, or when prior communication with families, students, and staff can take place. 

MoCo schools, along with many across the state, experienced snow storms that closed school last Tuesday, Jan. 16, and Wednesday, Jan. 17 and again on Friday, Jan. 19 due to several additional inches of snow. 

Students are required to have 180 school days a year. With three days already cancelled by the county, a conversation about the implementation of virtual days has spiked. Virtual days, also referred to as Code Purple, will replace traditional school closure and move classes online for the day. This decision has been made in hopes of preventing make-up days added to the end of the school year, which has been done in prior years. 

The Board of Education plans to use virtual learning protocols that students participated in during the pandemic when carrying out Code Purple days. 

Junior Lauren Rich, said, “I think turning snow days into virtual days takes away the fun of the snow. In the past, snow days have always been my favorite part of the winter, and now we don’t get to have the excitement of waking up and finding out school was canceled.” 

Sophomore Geronimo Castano shared a different perspective. “I am not too upset about the virtual learning, because I would rather do that than have to go to school in the summer when I could be enjoying the warm weather.”