Sound familiar? When I was a kid we walked a mile to school in snow that was up to our knees". Though not quite accurate, we never closed anything down for a mere four inches of snow. Now, even in Minnesnowta, we close schools before a single flake falls. Pathetic.
13
Still waiting for a snow day in NYC this year #climatechange
2
When i was in elementary school in PA, a child slipped under a bus and was run over one snowy morning. It has been decades and i still think of that.
On a totally different note, the article is very remiss for not discussing the online snow day predictor. It would have added much to the article.
https://www.snowdaycalculator.com/calculator.php
https://freakonomics.com/2011/02/02/against-discretionary-snow-days/
5
ICWYDT, NYT. "Snowflakes". Heh.
Anyone remember the old "I walked five miles to school in the snow. Uphill. Both ways." stories from your grandparents?
Anyway, here in San Antonio, where the only snow we will see is in a raspa, even the threat of really cold weather is enough to close schools. Keep in mind that those days do have to be made up in accordance with state laws.
It's best to just go ahead and have school and save the days for summer.
A distinction should be made between snow and ice. Snow, if it's not coming down too fast, can be plowed and shoveled aside, making way for traffic and pedestrians. Ice, on the other hand, is really terrifying. In our border state we have our share of snow storms but we also have sleet, freezing rain, and--in my opinion the worst of all--freezing fog. Parked cars slide sideways on sloped lots and we take to the sidewalks at our peril. Crews put out salt and other chemicals but the stuff re-freezes. During one particular event two of my relatively athletic friends, one under the age of 30, fell on the ice and broke wrists and ankles. I completely understand closing when it's icy!
19
Snow Days? We don't even have snow anymore here in NYC!
6
I guess it’s all relative to geography. Prior to my divorce, my kids would have an occasional snow day in NJ. My ex remarried and moved to Toronto. For the balance of their school lives, all the way through college, my kids never had a snow day no matter how brutal the storm. Canadians are a hearty lot!
9
Hated snow days when I was teaching....still had to get up in the morning to see if school was on anyhow. There was really no such thing as a snow day in public schools since the time was just added to the end of the year. It could really mess up a class schedule if a test or a lab was on tap. (for teachers with kids going to school in one district while teaching in another, the school schedules can be problematic as well. ex: one district calls a late arrival while the other calls a day off.)
A final bit on the calling of a snow day....the superintendent has to balance required school time with safety. The lawyers can emerge from the woodwork quickly if something goes wrong when a snow day is not called.
4
What's a snow day?
here in Portland, it takes a whisper of snow to shut down the city. People leave their cars mid-intersection. People clear out the aisles in the grocery store in panic.
Back in Wisconsin, it took more than a few flakes to shut down the city, considerably more.
But self driving vehicles should save us all from the horror of driving in snow, no?
1
What are the stats on NYC snow days prior to the Lindsay Blizzard of Jan 1969? My understanding is that there were none. Ever. Period, prior to that.
1
I was 3 grade Savannah GA. 65+ years ago. A 1/2 of wet white took the # 1 spot on the black and white TV with a little, I mean little snowman on a cars hoods the best of the lot.
2
Seems to vary but the one place that is the worst is Washington, DC because they shut down the entire city if a certain amount of snow is even predicted. Not just the schools, the entire federal government. (Insert your own wisecrack here.)
I've been there when it's been predicted, doesn't happen and the entire city looks like one of those sci-fi movies with the bombs that vaporize people but leave the buildings standing.
2
I snow in NYC for the last 2 winters. How depressing.
I'm from the edge of the lake effect snow belt in WNY. Let me tell you that there is no sadness like the sadness of a foot of snow falling overnight at STILL having to go to school when everyone else in the county has a snow day.
1
When I was in Augusta, Georgia about 25 years ago there was the threat of a blizzard and school was cancelled. We went out and played tennis in shorts and a T-shirt on our snow day.
1
Writing this from my office high on Quincy Hill in Hancock. It's snowing. That is the default. Wouldn't want it any other way.
2
We had a 'snow day' this month. Got a whole half inch.
I've heard two arguments in favor of shutting down. Firstly, it's dangerous for teenaged drivers. Secondly, a lot of school bus drivers commute from rural areas and might have trouble showing up for work. Both are understandable. But a half inch?
The US population has grown tremendously in the time since the snow days started to increase, and mostly in metropolitan areas. With the increased traffic on the road, combined with the fact that most people STILL don't know how to drive, maybe more snow days is not such a bad thing.
And like some of the commenters, whenever we have a big snowstorm, I still feel like a little kid.
17
One of the dilemmas is that you don't need snow to have a "snow day".
Simply put, for decades school systems in the northern climes have developed calendars that assume a number of "snow days" due to inclement winter weather. Now, even as climate change leads to less severe winter weather those built-in "off days" remain.
I would wager that many school systems now "call a snow day" for even minor storms towards the latter part of winter so they can "burn off" those extra days built into the calendar.
Maybe the "solution" (should there actually be a "problem" in search of one) would be to start calling these events "weather days"?
1
The school administrators here decide based on whether they feel the buses can make their routes safely. The snow isn't usually a problem in itself, ice on the roads is.
Some of the most harrowing winter driving I've done has been well after the storm passed as the melting snow refreezes into black ice overnight.
14
Grew up in New England. Raising my family in Minnesota. I am comfortable with snow. :-)
My observation is that my own kids have had fewer snow days in the 2000s than I did in the 1980s, but I think some of that has to do with road treatment and plowing capabilities combined with the fact that MN tends to be colder and my New England experience seemed snowier (memory might be flawed.)
Anyway, I mostly came here to say the photos accompanying this piece are excellent - made me smile!
7
I lived in Wyoming for a year in the early 1990s. I don't recall school ever being canceled because of snow. However, when the weather forecasters stopped announcing the temperature and instead stated the number of minutes it would take for exposed skin to freeze, people started to worry.
6
I know for a fact that policy changes during my time in middle and high school resulted in snow days being called more frequently, even though they tried to stay open as much as possible.
When my family moved to that school district, the joke was they only called off school if the superintendent of schools couldn't get to his office. He drove a big 4x4 truck! Our bus drivers for a number of years in that district were all farmers, who were used to driving in inclement conditions and didn't think twice about driving a school bus full of kids through a couple feet of snow drift. This was all at a time when the town didn't have the resources to plow the streets quickly, and everyone was just used to driving through a foot of snow when required.
In my final couple years in high school, the leadership changed to having more warm climate poeple, we had more city drivers who weren't used to driving through deep snow in the country, we had a more risk averse community and people were becoming more litigious and critical of the school's decisions.
When I started there, we had occasional delays so they could get the buses warmed up and school lots cleared, but rarely closed. I remember going to school one day when it was -23F! Okay, that might have been the windchill, but you get the idea. And, I remember days when we had a 6in of snow and more was falling, and we still went to school.
By the time I graduated, it seemed like they closed at the drop of a snowflake.
2
As a parent, it's easy to feel aggrieved (and sometimes elated) by snow days. As a superintendent, I can imagine the decision feels more fraught: it's clearly not worth going ahead with school as usual if a single family ends up in a fatal crash, or a school bus gets stuck in a drift.
The cost-benefit tilts toward caution.
One other change is worth noting: when I was a kid, there was no such thing as a "two hour delay," which these days serves as a convenient way for superintendents to hedge their bets - or transition incrementally to a full-on snow day.
4
There are two factors that work at cross purposes. To decrease the number of snow days, schools in some areas are allowed to have a two-hour delay and it does not count as a snow day. To increase the number of snow days, more and more kids are transported to school either by bus or in their family's SUV, even when they are within walking distance, which puts pressure on superintendents to call.
1
It’s interesting that there is no discussion in the article of the economic disruption caused by a snow day. There’s what I would term a “deadweight loss” of a snow day. If both parents work and you have young children, one parent must take a day off or work from home (if you’re lucky enough to be able to productively do so), or pay for last minute childcare (again, if you’re lucky enough to have the option). There are long-term macroeconomic consequences of this when you start adding up 5-10 snow days a year (as we are looking at in our district this year). We’re a small, somewhat isolated town that can’t afford to lose more economic productivity.
5
In the south we have to recognize the limits of snow and ice removal on the roads - and the people who panic at being caught on the road. This leads to more snow days out of caution.
It's frustrating, but Atlanta simply doesn't have the equipment and roadway construction that is common in northern cities.
2
Whenever there's snow, I take a vacation day, and the kid and I go sledding if they close the school. It's such a rare occurrence on this side of the pond, but such a treat.
9
My first snow day was a week -- back in (I think February, maybe March) 1966 when three feet of snow fell. We lived in Lanham, Maryland (just outside the DC Beltway.) My father dug tunnels in the snow for us to play.
But I recall working on an independent study math class in Mendham , NJ in an epic ice storm in 1973 or 1974 (three days -- there was at least an inch of ice on things.) and in February 1978 I recall a pair of winter storms dumping 17 and then 24 inches of snow in Menfham. By then, I had to shovel.
I now live in California. I think it snowed a quarter inch back in 2012? But it does sometimes snow on this mountains around the Bay, and when it does it can be beautiful. And I don't have to shovel it.
1
@CACondor
Now they close schools in Maryland when there is no snow on the ground but they think it is supposed to snow later.
Our problem is really the ice, not the snow. -- And the fact that people don't know how to drive on it.
1
I grew up in a mountain town, and as a kid we had our share of snow days. The test was whether the bus drivers thought they could navigate the roads with tire chains. That usually meant at least a foot of snow, or super-slick and dangerous roads.
With climate change, there are far fewer big snowstorms here these days, but there are just as many snow days. Why? Because if there is a chance of any snow at all, too many parents won't send their kids to school, so administrators just give up and cancel classes. The kids are happy, of course (teachers too!), but it is eye-rolling how little snow it takes to close the schools these days.
I was six or seven when the 1967 blizzard hit Chicago. The next morning, my mother bundled me up and insisted that I go to elementary school, though it was clear to me even at that young age that there would be no school. Sure enough, I got to Hynes Elementary School, peered in some windows, saw no one and went back home. I lost a rubber boot along the way in a snowdrift. Never did find that boot. But snow days were wonderful, though I doubt my mom much appreciated two hyper kids in the house when they happened.
7
The 1967 blizzard was the first time my high school had closed for weather in its 64 years of existence.
1
I bring a unique perspective to this article. I have been a student and now I am a teacher. Either way, a snow event to me is still one of the most beautiful things in nature, especially if the flakes are big.
I use an old grain shovel that my grandfather used to clear the snow. Grandpop has been gone now for 30 years so that grain shovel has to be close to 50 years old. Since it is made of sturdy wood and real industrial aluminum, I'm going to say that my grandchildren have a good shot at using it.
I've resisted many suggestions from my wife to buy a snow blower because of the connection of Grandpop and the grain shovel. A snow blower means it won't snow anyway!
The biggest problem I have with snow days today is that the schedule here in New Jersey has been built up to the point where we are now in school for most of June. Snow days push that to some times going to school for all of June, which is a biggest difference from when I was growing up in the 1970s. One year because of cancellations, my daughter's district went until June 30. The next week, Target was advertising for the new school year all ready, much to my daughter's dismay!
Finally, snow days today for most students present a rare disruption in their social lives. Most are in the house on their devices, no matter the weather. When I was young snow days meant snow fights, snow men and snow forts. Oh, and mothers hollering at us not to bring in the snow on our boots because the dampness would ruin the floors.
10
If you look at the all-time snow storms for Boston, and the snowiest winters, nearly all have been since the 1990s. As the Decemberists sing, my kids "lived a childhood in snow, and all their teens in tow, stuffed in a strata of clothes".
There were also the arctic vortices to deal with in schools with deficient, decrepit, and failing heating systems.
1
“It means the average is warming,” she said. “There are still swings up and down.”
And because climate change is putting more moisture into the air, the snowfalls that do come can be extremely heavy. So climate change doesn’t mean that snow days are going away."
In my senior year of high school, my city experienced an abnormal winter that caused 11 snow days and more than 20 days with two-hour delays. While some areas of the country aren't receiving as much snow as they used to, others are being ravished by storms they cannot predict or prepare for because of changing weather patterns. During that winter, snow was not the biggest problem, the think layer of ice on all of the streets was the most pressing concern.
Many have commented about the proposed impeding threat of litigation that pressures school districts into cancelling school, and to that I say what's wrong with that? There are valid concerns for parents who worry about their children's safety on the roads.
I know many high school students who drove in snow for the first time on their way to school and then crashed because of lack of snow driving knowledge. Their parents could not take them to school themselves, and ended up frustrated at a lack of school cancellation. Inexperienced or panicked drivers and school parking lots filled with ice are something that school districts have to consider. In my opinion, it's better to cancel out of caution than to have school to "prove" you are not scared of litigation.
6
One major change I've noticed over the years is that when I was a kid (in the '70s and '80s), the decision to close a school was often announced in the morning of the closure. Nowadays, closures are mostly announced the evening before the snow day. I suspect that's driven by the recognition that parents need more notice to arrange childcare -- you can't just count on some neighborhood housewives to pick up the slack. But one result is that the decision to close is often made based on a forecast that turns out to be worse than the reality. So we end up with a prudent decision to close the schools on days that end up not being as bad as predicted.
33
@Jon I think you nailed it. Our school district in Austin makes the call by 10:00 pm the previous night. That has led to a few "Texas Blizzards" involving free days off with surprisingly mild weather. One favorite photo of mine has the kids on their bikes at the park during one of these events.
1
@Jon , of course they need to arrange child care--parents work, both parents, in these "coddled" times of ours, and calling your employer in the morning, near or even after the time you're expected to work, is not exactly an upward career path. For low-wage workers, the late notice may be enough to get you fired. I'm as impressed as the next old person with how rugged we were back in the day, but walking to our neighborhood schools rather than having schools far away, or having mom at home to keep house--those lives are over for most ordinary families now.
4
In the 1950's and 60's in Connecticut, school buses geared up with tire chains when it snowed, and the threat of lawsuits was much lower.
Traction + Fewer Lawsuits = Fewer Snowdays.
3
@Freddy Remember that you're talking about a Northern state accustomed to snow, that knew they would use the chains regularly. That's a big investment for a city or school district to make if they don't have snow, or major snowstorms, every year.
6
I was hoping for a nice info-graphic.
1
no problem - Climate change will take care of that.
We rarely had sow days on Long Island but then the school district owned the busses and most schools were local. NO bussing across town as is the case in so many cities today. Also litigiousness is a contributing factor.
Here in Concord, NH there are so many hills and even though the city has lots of snow plows, it takes time for them to get around the city. The route to the hospital gets priority and then the school bus streets, and sometimes school start time is just delayed.
1
Here in the south, snow days are a particular treat - for teachers as well as students. When I was a kid, we could count on at least one snow day a year. In my early teaching career, the same. (Sometimes the snow would play with us; waiting until March to show up.)
But then things began to change with the snow becoming rarer and rarer. Here in Columbia SC. we're on our second year of no snow - none, zip, zilch, not even a flake. I've taken to going on a "snowcation" by traveling to Asheville NC to see snow. But even that is becoming problematic. Recently, I was able to see some wet, slushy snow there, but next year I may have to go further north. Unfortunately, with greater transportation difficulties, and obligations here, that won't be easy.
I know that with coastal property being lost to rising sea levels, with tropical diseases migrating northward and some people literally losing their countries to global warming, my sadness at not seeing snow is ridiculously minor. But this is one more tiny way global warming is affecting us all.
5
One thing that hasn't changed in more than sixty years is school bus design. They are still high center of gravity, thin-walled boxes of danger; poor excuses for transportation of children in any weather. How many times have we seen a school bus accident where they entire body of the school bus has sheared away from the frame, and a tip-over or rollover is a virtual guarantee with these primitive vehicles. Why do we expect, even demand that tank-like, low center of gravity city buses must run in any weather, but just shrug that those yellow rolling antiques can't be expected to transport children to school in the barest fall of snow?
7
Snow days cancelling school, needs snow, something that we have almost completely lacked this winter in NYC.
I can't remember a winter so warm, and .....
snowless....but we still have a month left.
2
As a child of the 1970s when children were a little less pampered, it had to be a raging blizzard, for school to be cancelled. Back then you walked to school, no Yellow school bus stopped outside your apartment building, your means of locomotion were you legs. Sometimes the teachers couldn't make it in, and we all sat in the auditorium for the day. On one such day the school organized an epic dodge ball competition in the gym.
The most epic snow day of my youth was the 1977 blizzard which buried New York City, the whole family in the kitchen, even dad, who never missed work, was forced to stay home, we filled up on pancakes for breakfast, mom busily working in the kitchen, humming, Dad joking with her, we all waited for the snow to stop then went sledding in nearby Bronx park east, even Dad, he laughed so much that day. There was a pile of snow that literally reached to the second floor of our apartment building and the next day us kids turned it into a snow fort. 50 years ago and seems like yesterday. Today, kids would just stay home and play video games but back then our moms ordered us to "go out and play". I wonder where the memories of today's children will come from?
20
@Lonnie : kids today expect 6-8 snow days.
On those days, they spend even MORE time glued to their smartphones, surfing social media and texting friends.
So that is what they will remember -- their smartphones.
What a nice memory
1
I thought schoolbus drivers determined whether or not there would be school on any given day.
1
The equipment, the velocity and response to snow used now is of a military operation.
1
In my jurisdiction school is called and after school activities are sometimes cancelled the day before the snow is scheduled to start.
Add in the bogus teacher work days, extended breaks and other days off and one knows why we are so far behind the rest of the world. An excessive prioritization of sports is not helping either.
6
@JimH Teachers generally don't like "bogus work days." We feel it takes time away from instruction. Chat with your local politicians and school board if you are unhappy about it.
3
@JimH, it doesn't matter how many snow days, teacher work days, or holidays students have, they are still required to attend 180 days of school. I think it is 185 in my school district. You are also wrong about students being far behind in NC. In economically prosperous areas, students score above grade level. Teacher work days are scheduled so teachers can calculate grades and schedule parent conferences, or for teacher training and updating of teacher skills. School is usually cancelled a day ahead so that parents can arrange day care because most mothers have to work to supplement the family income. Your biased term "bogus" lets me know you have an agenda. As for sports, they are after school, not during school and parents are the biggest drivers of school athletics.
3
Snow days? No, “inclement weather days.” School is cancelled when roads are bad, making it dangerous for school buses. An inch of snow? If roads are icy, schools close. Don’t want any law suits! In addition, closings happen if a bad snow is predicted—which sometimes comes to naught.
3
With the way the MTA has shut down for blizzards in recent years, we can have snow days at work, which I love. Even though I still work, it brings back all the weather excitement of my childhood.
I’ve always wondered how much a municipality’s school bus contractor controls when school is closed for snow. More specifically, the bus contractor’s insurance company. Do these policies state that when there’s above a certain accumulation predicted that the company can’t operate?
3
No question the snow days and 2-hr delays have increased and that's because of districts' fear of lawsuits. Personally I have more of an issue with "teacher training days" and an entire week off in February, coming right on the heels of the Christmas break, then another week off in April, coming just a few weeks before the end of the school year. These days off are unnecessary, disruptive, and clearly in the best interests of the teachers' union and not the students or their families.
8
@Roberta Teacher's Union? Hardly- parents schedule all their trips to Disney, Bahamas, etc over these breaks. Try taking that away, and they will pull their kids out of school anyway..
3
Teacher training days are clearly in the best interest of student learning. It’s when teachers can analyze student performance in “real time” and make adjustments where needed. We changed our February break to a long weekend celebrating the President’s holiday however many families still take their children out of school for vacations. Go figure.
3
As a hale and hearty Minnesotan in the 70s, snow days were rare and a foot of fresh powder might give you a pass for running a few minutes late. It it wasn't windy enough to create huge drifts, schools were open. And almost no one had a 4X4 or AWD.
Here in in northern New Mexico, a couple inches of snow means a day of closures, chaos, crashes, and hulking SUVs rolling at parade-speed.
13
There's an elephant in the room in all the talk about snow days. It's the fact that our public schools are the nation's taxpayer-funded daycare centers and it is hard to overstate their economic importance and significance - for students and their futures and parents in the here and now. Ask any parent who's expected to report to work, regardless of the conditions, trying to figure out what to do with an unexpected day off for their elementary or middle-school aged children.
25
@MB
What to do with a middle-schooler??? I started babysitting at the age of 11. I was the one in charge on snow days for my 3 younger sibs.
3
@MB I am a health professional, and as many parents who have no plan for a snow day also have no plan for when they need to stay home with a sick kid.. part of being a parent is putting together your "village" to be your back up. Sorry to be harsh, but that's being a parent. I've heard all the parent sob stories, but I became a single Mom of 5 and managed to work it. If you have kids, you need to be a parent.
5
Being a retired teacher, I came to the conclusion that during my entire 35 year professional life I was on the same schedule as I had been in seventh grade, including snow days. The luxury of getting a phone call essentially saying you don’t have to venture out on a cold, snowy morning and you can, in fact, remain abed, is profoundly delicious.
50
In NYC, snow days have bizarrely become more frequent as winters have become milder. Historically, snow days were for storms so bad that the power lines were down (at least in the burbs where they were not underground; that's why the city famously almost never closed). People used to winterize vehicles with snow tires, and carry on in anything short of a major blizzard. Now we close for a little icing or a chance of a few inches.
8
I grew up outside of Philadelphia and was in school in the 50s and early 60s. Usually a nor'easter or two would drop 8 or 10 inches or more and we would have a snow day. Since there were no busses, everybody trekked to school, and yes, sometimes the snow was deep, at least, to a six-year old. We dragged our sleds to school and sledded at recess and lunchtime.
Our kids grew up mostly in the Princeton area in the 90s. One noteworthy aspect of living in that wealthy area is that there was a high density, you might say a 'critical mass' of lawyers concentrated in Hopewell Twp, NJ. I got the distinct impression that the superintendent had a persistent nightmare of a school bus full of lawyers' kids rolling over in a ditch with catastrophic results. Compared to my experience 40 or 50 years earlier, no question there were plenty of delayed openings and full snow days, sometimes where the problem was caused by just a bit of sleet overnight. I think the fear of lawsuits and the extra measure of caution was justified.
3
I will never forget the glorious January that school was cancelled for almost a week in the early 80s in the DC area, postponing midterm exams and giving me exactly the time I needed to finish studying for them! Now long a resident of the midwest, I scoff at the idea that one would close schools *just* for snow, at least in urban areas where roads usually get cleared pretty quickly.
7
Perhaps actual "snow days" haven't increased here, but the winters here vary wildly, anymore.
What has increased manyfold since the 1970s is the number of school busses as there are fewer schools. And those bus runs are cancelled if there is *any* winter precipitation in the forecast. It seems up here, just as in the United States, insurance companies and the prospect of liability dictates these cancellations more than any other factors.
8
Just 50 miles north of the Bronx we rode the bus for 30-45 minutes to get to school, and snow days were rare in the early 1960's. When flakes were seen the bus driver put chains on the rear tires and we listened to them clank against the wheel well the rest of the trip. When did tire chains disappear?
5
@Donna Gray You still see buses, including school buses, chain up during winter snowstorms. Depending on the severity of the storm, many private cars as well. We don't get snow often in winter in Seattle, but when we do, we can get it in big dumps. It can be a necessity with all of the hills around here.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bwellsea/49588298602/
We didn't get off for four inches of snow. Weekly Sunday night blizzards in the '60s made for the best year of my life in Somerville, MA. That was some serious snow of a foot or more. I can hear those old air raid sirens going off at 7AM still . . .
8
Do you not remember the havoc that was created in New Jersey when the state was unprepared for a snowstorm a year or so ago? People were on the highway for 9 hours. Children were stuck on buses with no food or toilet for many hours.
Everyone agrees it would have been better to cancel as a precaution than to have this type of situation with hundreds of accidents on the road in a few hours and traffic backed up for miles and miles.
19
@K, Same was true for Atlanta. I have lived in the Virginia and North Carolina all of my life. We don't get snow a lot but when we do it is often mixed with freezing rain and icy highways. We also don't have much in the way of snow clearing equipment because it isn't needed that often. In my school district, two students lost their lives when they were driving to school in iffy conditions. There were no lawsuits but the superintendent of schools was understandably upset over the loss of students. We also have "hurricane days" when the danger of local tornadoes is a strong possibility. Our system of counts hours rather than days so the school day is often extended to make up missed days.
7
In my area of New England this is our second year of no snow days...
I’m traveling along the northeast corridor, now in late February, and have seen people in shorts and tee shirts every day of my trip. This article is no longer relative. Look around, the climate is changing.
18
Thank God it’s getting warmer and wetter rather than colder and drier.
1
Litigation is what has changed.
18
Ann Arbor, Michigan, here. Doesn't this matter have more to do with bureaucrats than meteorology? Here we are "allowed " 6-8 days a year of snow days, at the discretion of the bureaucrat in chief, the superintendent. Two more days can be granted by the state if needed. we have got to March without using a single day this year but with the hint of snow school was canceled, some 14 h in advance today. we were supposed to have 4-8 inches on the ground. there are 2.
14
@the horror Think of it from the viewpoint of the superintendent. If they don't cancel and the predicted snow happens, they would be inundated with calls about risking the students safety. Screwed either way.
6
@the horror , you seem to think that "bureaucrat" is a slur that automatically makes a school principal or superintendent a villain. Some do that kind of sneering at the mere mention of teachers as well. The surliness of our citizenry is remarkable. Try a little imagining that this was your own responsibility, have a wreck with injury or two occur as you make your bold decisions with other people's children's welfare at stake, have a fatality or two. Then you might see this with eyes that do more than pierce good people for fault.
6
@the horror so you volunteer to take the neighbor's kids when they announce it right at time to leave for work? They have to make the call earlier now.
3
Snow days? My kids’ school district (outside Nashville) cancels for heavy RAIN. I don’t mean hurricanes, or deluges which flood and shut the city down. Not even storms with wind gusts, thunder and lightning. Just heavy rain. Last week they dismissed early at 1 because rain was FORECASTED for 3. It never came. Talk about delicate snowflakes. And raindrops.
36
In our district, every "snow day" is made up by having kids go to school on holidays, such as MLK day, that otherwise would have been an off day. It's disruptive because you can't bother to make plans on days that would otherwise be holidays.
On the other hand, the district refuses to call snow days until the morning, often within an hour of school starting, which also makes it difficult for parents to plan the day. If a snow day has already been called, then the district might not call off a day in which the driving conditions are obviously treacherous. As parents, we waste a lot of time calling the bus garage when buses are 1/2 hour late of more while our kids stand in the freezing cold, because the district didn't feel like issuing a 2-hour delay either.
Where I grew up, we had 5 built in days that could be called off for snow or other emergencies without having to make that back up. Our district would make often make the call the night before, so parents and kids didn't waste 2 hours of the morning playing a game of wait and see.
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We’d had nine snow days in mid-Michigan by January last year. Our first on this year was today.
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I remember that quite well, here in AA. it got to the point that getting close to Thursdays I would start making arrangements, so ridiculously disingenuous were those cancellations. 2-3 inches, "freezing conditions ", "the rural areas haven't been plowed"... In my mind i was seeing teachers and the principals and the superintendent start mixing margaritas on Thursdays to celebrate their early weekends. I'm a nurse under am union... I have an obligation to my patients to be at work (there are no "unsafe road conditions" for nurses)... which, by way, accumulates 9h of PTO every month. Even if I wanted long weekends I wouldn't be able to.
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I have lived in Minnesota my entire 71 years. School was never cancelled when I was a child in Duluth. But then school buses were rare. Busing kids across town to attend schools for racial balance or a magnet program just wasn't done. School was called off once when I was in high school in St. Paul. Again school buses were very uncommon. Now I have grandkids. When a snow day happens and there have been a few each winter, we usually go skiing or sledding. Snow days are fun days!
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@underwater44 : so….when you went to school, US schools were the best in the world.
There were few or no snow days and kids all walked to school.
Today…our schools are ranked #37 in the world, just behind LATVIA.
But dang it, we get 8 snow days every year -- snow or not! -- and our teachers have the poshest benefits and privileges and shortest hours IN THE WORLD.
After working 20 years in schools, it seems that the teachers are always more excited about a possible snow day off than the kids.
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Thoroughly enjoyed the featured memories and photos!
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The biggest reason schools are closed more often is fear. Fear of lawsuits in the sue you sue me world of today should a bus have an accident or a child slips and falls on the walk to school!
There is also the cancellation or delays because "It's too cold" which was totally unheard of in my youth. Reason, parents don't take the time (or care) that their children are properly dressed for the weather.
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@Ellwood Nonnemacher
My school district in Washington had one day where they didn't delay or cancel school, because of fear of backlash that the district was "giving in" to parent's fears. At my school alone, there were three car crashes and a bus that slid down a hill sideways. Parents and students' fears are very legitimate, and superintendents must weigh their concerns when calling off or delaying school.
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@Ellwood Nonnemacher This is so true. I grew up in MN and walked to school daily in all kinds of weather and no school closures.
In fact, if we arrived to school early in the winter, the sign on the door was of a little snowman that said, "Brr...it is cold outside ,come in" only if it was below zero! If it was above zero, we stayed outside until the bell rang dressed in all of our gear.
And we didn't mind. It was fine.
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I’m a high school history teacher of almost 30 years. First, many of us teachers get as much or more joy out of snows days as the kids. That being said, there have been two really memorable times when our school was called off for snow and bitter cold. Both times, the storms extended our Christmas holiday by a week. Perfectly timed storms are rare!
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The NYC one is familiar to me. Going through elemtenary-high school in '80s and '90s NYC, everyone new school was NEVER closed.
I always heard the reason was because some kids had no where else to go and didn't get a breakfast/lunch if school wasn't open, but I don't know if that was the real reason or not.
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When I was a kid, parents or kids themselves made their breakfasts and lunches. We were even allowed to go back home for lunch. We never had snow days. We trudged to school and tossed snowballs at trees along the way.
Differences between then and now: We didn't take buses to school because school was in our neighborhood; and grownups understood that having kids meant feeding them.
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I have the same memories. I went to school in Queens in the 1950s and 1960s. I remember walking to school when the busses weren’t running; about 3 miles to high school.
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@Kas Oops - meant "knew" above.
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