No, Bald Eagle’s flexible instruction days aren’t going away. See calendar changes
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- The Bald Eagle Area School District added weather make-up days to its 2026-27 calendar.
- Those days can be used to provide traditional school days over flexible instruction days.
- The district’s superintendent said regular school days are often better for students.
Despite some notable changes to its next academic calendar, the Bald Eagle Area School District is not ending its use of flexible instruction days.
The 2026-27 calendar, approved by the school board Wednesday, features four built-in “weather make-up days” that could be used in place of traditional snow days or flexible instruction days. Should severe weather strike, the district plans to use its weather make-up days on Dec. 23 and Feb. 15 before using flexible instruction days, Superintendent Christopher Santini told the Centre Daily Times.
“We will still have flexible instruction days,” Santini said. “We plan to keep them as an option, but we also have additional weather make-up days we can use in place of a few FIDs. We plan to use [weather make-up days] more than we have in the past few years.”
Using a built-in weather make-up day will require a snowstorm, severe weather event or other issue — like 2025’s widespread power outages — to occur. If none are needed by the time Dec. 23 passes, for example, it will not be used as a school day.
District officials built the calendar with weather make-up days on March 25 and 29 as last-minute options. The latter date, the Monday immediately following 2027’s Easter holiday, is the least likely to be used, Santini said.
Two weather make-up days were built into Bald Eagle Area School District’s 2025-26 calendar on Feb. 16 and April 6, though the district passed on using them and instead rolled out flexible instruction days.
Santini said the district hopes using built-in weather make-up days can provide a few more traditional school days instead of flexible instruction days.
“I like having kids in school. I think it’s more effective,” the superintendent said. “When kids are in school, we know that they heave heat and are getting a breakfast and a lunch. For some of our kids, that’s important.”
Pennsylvania’s public school districts can develop flexible instruction programs that offer a combination of online and offline programming to help meet instructional requirements for each school year. Bald Eagle Area schools typically post learning materials to virtual classrooms and give students a few days to complete assignments before they’re due.
School districts across the commonwealth must apply for three-year access to flexible instruction days. Santini said Bald Eagle Area administrators are currently working to organize and submit the next application for the district, whose license will expire June 30.
Though all five of Centre County’s public school districts have received approval to use flexible instruction days, only Bellefonte, Penns Valley and Bald Eagle Area’s districts have used them in recent years. The Philipsburg-Osceola Area School District used snow make-up days on Monday and Tuesday this week.
The State College Area School District, meanwhile, does not build snow days into its academic calendar. After canceling classes on four days already this year, the district is lengthening its remaining school days to meet state education requirements.
The Bald Eagle Area School District’s 2026-27 calendar kicks off with the first day of school on Aug. 31. You can view the full calendar on the district’s website at beasd.org.
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