Amid precipitation on Sunday and freezing temperatures from Winter Storm Fern, Orange County Schools moved Monday’s instruction to remote learning.

The school district, which covers central and northern Orange County, alerted families to the change at 2 p.m. on Sunday, saying the decision was made to hold one of its five available remote learning days out of concern for road conditions with more freezing rain expected to fall Sunday night into Monday morning. All school campuses and facilities will be closed, and any athletic events and after-school activities scheduled for Monday are canceled.

As a result, Orange County Schools said students can earn their remote learning attendance by completing their assigned work, which they can do asynchronously from instruction. Sunday’s alert said elementary students should have packets of work already at home, while middle and high schoolers will access their assignments through their take-home Chromebooks. Students will have at least five days after a return to in-person instruction to submit their work.

Orange County Schools said no decision has been made yet for instruction on Tuesday. A decision for what to expect will be made “as early as possible on Monday,” the alert said.

North Carolina public schools are allowed five remote learning days a year amid requirements to hold either 185 days or 1,025 total hours of instruction. Each school system can structure their calendar to build in buffer days for weather. Orange County Schools already canceled classes for two days in early December out of concerns for road conditions.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, meanwhile, had already scheduled Monday as a teacher workday as the district transitions to its third quarter of the academic year. As of Sunday afternoon, no announcement has been made about Tuesday’s plans for CHCCS students and staff.

As Winter Storm Fern swept across the southern United States, many areas in central North Carolina saw snow, sleet and ice accumulation overnight Saturday. With more precipitation expected Sunday into Monday — and temperatures consistently staying around or below freezing — adverse road conditions and the chance of power outages are expected to remain through at least Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Find a list of safety resources, local emergency services, shelter options and more on Chapelboro. Ready.gov, a website through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, also offers several safety tips for staying warm, keeping power, and enduring inclement winter weather. More information can be found here.

Featured photo via Matherly Collins/The Daily Tar Heel.

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