12-02-2025
Guilford County students, staff concerned about remote learning days
GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) — Students, parents and staff have endured a long winter of school closures and remote learning.
'I don't like how comfortable they are with being able to give remote learning days because remote learning is not fun,' said Maggie McNees, a senior at Page High School.
On Tuesday, Guilford County Schools switched to virtual learning because of the weather. The winter weather advisory for the county prompted the GCS team to decide the risk was not worth it to have school in person for bus drivers, parents and everyone else who has to drive.
Some students and staff want the district to find another solution for potential winter weather.
Instead of in his classroom at Andrews High School, Jim McSorley worked at the Kathleen Clay Edwards Family Branch Library.
'Working on a desktop, I can work twice as fast as on a laptop … Remote learning is not my favorite. Let's just put it that way,' McSorley said.
After the last stretch of remote days, the impact on the test scores was clear.
'Just being completely honest, my kids bombed the final exam compared to last semester when they had face-to-face time to review with teachers,' McSorley said.
It is a critical time for seniors applying to college and scholarships.
'A lot of high school students are not going to get online,' McSorley said.
Except for McNess.
'I already did my Spanish assignment … and I just turned in my history paper,' McNess said.
On Tuesday, she sat at her dining room table at home.
'It is back-to-back calls that are 25 minutes,' McNess said.
McNess says it is not always valuable depending on the teacher and wants the district to look at other solutions to deal with the weather.
'There needs to be some more permanent solution because calling online school on a random day … harms most of the high school versus those few people you need to be finding a solution for,' McNess said.
Everyone understands the safety concern.
'One bus crash is too many, and the superintendent, they have to take that into account,' McSorley said.
But he doesn't want the entire student body to be impacted every time.
'I don't know if there is just same way that it could be by principal's decision or by geographic decision,' McSorley said.
The district still has about three days to use before they have to make up days.
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