On Feb. 13, 2014, Pascack Valley became the first school in the district to try something new, a Virtual School Day. After receiving permission from the state to allow students and teachers to work from home rather than in school on that snow day, PV attempted this experiment of implementing a digital school day. This was tried in order to adhere to the rule of the 180 days of school. After this day, PV became infamous in the community.

That morning, students logged onto their laptops and completed assignments posted by their teachers. They were able to do their work via websites like Edmodo, Google, and Canvas, could watch video lessons on YouTube, and communicate with their teachers and fellow classmates on websites like Twitter and Haiku.

Although a solid effort was exerted by all, PV was denied by the State Department of Education to count the Virtual Day as an actual school day.

“Virtual Day was a great experiment for us,” PV Superintendent P. Erik Gundersen said. “It worked out extremely well for the students and the teachers. I received an overall positive feedback from students, teachers, and parents about it.

“For future reference, there are a few things we would like to fix,” he added. “Some students complained that one or several of their classes had too much work to do and not enough collaboration. Teachers also said they would prefer more professional development beforehand, so they are able to figure out what it takes to run an effective virtual class, the amount of work they need to assign, etc. So those are some aspects we would definitely want to approve upon.”

There have been talks around the school recently about the possibility of another attempt at a Virtual School Day. Gundersen shared his thoughts for Virtual Days moving forward.

“It is a distinct possibility for us and we are definitely going to keep it as an option,” he said. “It is going to be something that we would have to work on with the State Department of Education, however. They were very supportive of the concept, but if they allowed the day to count, it would be in violation of state law. State law says that schools need to be physically open for it to count as a school day.”

Students had mixed opinions on the Virtual School Day. Many complained that the workload was way too much to fit into one day.

“Although good in theory, I felt as though I did more work on Virtual Day than I had in an entire week,” senior Tyler Halligan said. “I was stressed out of my mind.”

Other students enjoyed it.

“I loved it because I got to relax but still was able to get work done. I would definitely do it again,” said senior Erik Sullivan.

The Pascack Valley community will just have to wait and see if another Virtual School Day will be given another shot this year. It is unclear whether the State Department of Education will allow them to count as a school day in the future.

“Virtual Day was a phenomenal opportunity to have our students see how innovative, creative, and open-minded our teachers are to doing something different,” Gundersen added. “Teachers led by example, showing that it’s important to be able to take risks when appropriate.”