On April 8, there will be a solar eclipse. According to the Great American Eclipse, the eclipse is expected to last up to 4 minutes and 27 seconds. It is expected to start at approximately 1:45 p.m. and not be over until approximately 4:30 p.m. It’s to affect Mexico, Canada and the United States.
Due to the Solar Eclipse, school will be operating on a half day, due to the health risks that come with it. Students will be dismissed at 12:00 p.m. This half day will have no impact on the school calendar.
“It’s at the same time as regular dismissals, so we would have a lot of students who would be out leaving our building and riding the bus or walking home. So we’re trying to make sure nobody unknowingly damages their eyes,” principal Andrew Neely said.
The school board agreed on making April 8 a half day at the board meeting on March 18.
“There has been a lot of discussion in light of the pathway of the solar eclipse at and around dismissal time on Monday April 8,” Superintendent Brad Hatch said. “We are in what they call the path of totality. It’s anticipated that the Altoona Area will experience about 95% [totality]. I think most people are aware that there is a health risk and a danger of looking directly into the sun during the solar eclipse.”
The half day will not affect the school year and the ending date is still set to be May 31.
“It won’t add any days to the year. It counts as a full school day as our calendar is concerned. You will still be on track to get out of school on May 31,” Hatch said.
Several school districts in the eastern and western parts of PA are doing some sort of a modified day.
“In my conversation with other superintendents in the Blair County area, to my knowledge, they are all having some version of an early dismissal, whether it would be with lunch or without lunch, they have kind of their own time frame plan,” Hatch said. “A lot of it depends on their transportation, and how they get kids to and from school. I believe that a majority of districts in our four county area, it’s called the intermediate unit, most of them are considering an early dismissal of some sort at this point. We don’t have to do it, but most school districts are.”
It was chosen to be a half day due to the health risks that the eclipse could cause.
“It was out of the abundance of precautions and the safety for our students and bus drivers to make sure we are not exposing our students to a potentially dangerous situation,” Hatch said. “Not that we don’t trust our students to not look directly into the sun, but obviously, if people are driving or bus drivers are in a bus, you can’t not look in the direction that you’re supposed to be looking. It’s more of an abundance of caution to make sure that everybody is safe.”
Teachers will be staying with the regular school hours for additional training that would’ve taken place at another time.
“All of our staff members are still going to be on campus until the day ends,” Hatch said. “We have training planned for our secondary teachers in and around gifted education and students who have English as a second language. So they will be doing some training that we would otherwise be doing at a different time, but this will give us the opportunity to do that inside in a safe environment, and there will be some things planned for our elementary staff as well.”
Hatch hopes families will take advantage of the advance notice to make a plan for that day.
“We would hope that the two week notice that we gave will give parents and guardians the opportunity to plan for that type of dismissal,” Hatch said. “Just like when we do a FID day, we try to give as early of a notification as possible. We do realize that can be a challenge for people. It was really difficult for people with little ones. Not as concerned for our older kids who can probably be home by themselves, but for our younger kids that maybe need supervision, we want to make sure that parents have enough time to plan for that.”
At the high school, periods one through four will be shortened and lunches will be held 18 minutes earlier, so they can end at 12:00 p.m.
“We’ll have periods one through five, and that’s it,” Neely said. “They will be a little bit shorter. Lunches will start 18 minutes earlier, and they will be finished at 12. That’s why the rest of the class periods will be shortened. The rest of the classes are 37 and 38 minutes long.”
Students are expected to be eating lunch at school, and will be given the same amount of time for lunch.
“I was very adamant that kids got to eat that day, so I wanted the dismissal time to allow students at least a half day for the day,” Hatch said. “So that’s one of the reasons why we felt that by noon, we could have our students dismissed.”
Teachers are expected to adjust their lessons accordingly since there will be no afternoon classes.
“Teachers will have to adjust their lessons because we will not be able to run the afternoon classes,” Neely said. “I would expect that in the morning classes on that particular day, you’re probably going to have activities that are more for enrichment type activities, would be my guess.”
A flexible instruction day (FID) wasn’t used for this day due to administration wanting to have them available in case of a weather emergency.
“We could’ve used a FID day that day,” Hatch said. “We still have one available to us; however, if we have some type of weather emergency, we would like to have one reserved in case we would need it. Plus we want to get as much of a day of instruction in. Plus, I go back to the importance of a lot of our students relying on the lunch program and making sure that our students that are able to get here that day will get breakfast and lunch that day.”
Neely would like to advise students to be aware of the dangers and harms the eclipse could cause to the eyes.
“It’s important that if you view the eclipse that you do it in the proper way,” Neely said. “You need to be extremely careful. You can’t look at the eclipse without the proper protection, and it could damage your retinas. There are special glasses that are made that filter out the things that damage your eyes.”
It is also dangerous to be driving while the eclipse is happening, even if wearing the glasses.
“It’s not even advisable for people to be driving while the eclipse is going on and being in control of where you’ll be looking,” Hatch said. “Even with the safety glasses that are provided for the eclipse event, it’s not advisable to be wearing them when driving either.”
Glasses to view the eclipse are available at the Altoona Library or at vendors.
“If possible, if they want to experience the solar eclipse, procure the glasses,” Hatch said. “I know that the public library is giving them away for free while supplies last. We’ve also seen some local vendors are selling them for $2 to be able to experience the eclipse as well.”
Hatch hopes everyone gets to enjoy the experience of the eclipse, as it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“The event itself, we really hope that students and families experience it because it’s really only the time in your life time that you’ll experience this type of solar eclipse, so doing it safely and having the proper safety measures in place and utilizing the glasses are something that we want in place,” Hatch said.
Information on safety will be sent out via messages and emails to all students.
