School district snow days lost amid pandemic
But some refuse to let go of childhood rite
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Even before the first flakes fell, New York City’s first big snowfall of the season was doomed to be a gloomy disappointment for more than a million of its schoolchildren.
COVID-19 has robbed a lot from children in 2020, and in many school districts in northern climes it is now stealing the magic of the snow day — waking up to find that school has been canceled and the day will be filled with snowballs and snow angels.
Mayor Bill de Blasio made it clear as the city began preparing for the storm that rolled through the region Wednesday and Thursday that students there — including ones still attending classes in person — would have to log in and work as usual.
Kids have lost too much instruction time already, he said, though he admitted to mixed feelings.
“Asaparent—andiwasakid once myself — I have to say I feel a little sad that the snow day we used to all know may be gone because it’s really not going to be a day off if we have a snow day,” he said.
Not everywhere, though. In Washington Township, New Jersey, students should keep turning their pajamas inside out, putting spoons under their pillows and flushing ice cubes down the toilet in hopes of swaying the snow gods.
Superintendent Jeffrey Mohre said remote learning or not, he’ll still call snow days.
“Easiest decision I’ve had to make all year,” Mohre said Wednesday from Long Valley, New Jersey, which saw several inches of snow.
It came down to wanting to encourage “the anticipation and the excitement and the wonderment that so many of us experienced as children — and it is those things that make snow days such memorable childhood events,” he said.
“Go build a snowman,” was the instruction from like-minded Superintendent Bondy Shay Gibson at Jefferson County schools in Charles Town, West Virginia, where school was closed Wednesday.
“Take pictures of your kids in snow hats they will outgrow by next year and read books that you have wanted to lose yourself in, but haven’t had the time,” Shay Gibson wrote on the district’s website. “We will return to the serious and urgent business of growing up on Thursday.”
Even before the pandemic, the idea of canceling school in bad weather had been under threat as districts assigned students their own ipads and laptops that let them do lessons at home.
Districts in Vermont, Michigan, upstate New York and elsewhere floated the idea of doing away with snow days when they put together pandemic back-to-school plans that included either full- or part-time learning from home.
The debate is over whether it’s a break schools can afford amid worry that students are falling behind.
School districts around the country are fretting over big jumps in the number of students failing classes and many teachers say it is harder than ever to get students to turn in their work.
“It’s so complicated this year,” Boston mother Keri Rodrigues said.
Yes, kids are not getting enough instructional time. “But my kids are also kids,” said Rodrigues, whose five boys are between 7 and 13 years old. She said she intended to let her children have the day off, even if the school system went ahead with a day of remote learning.
“The first time we get a really big snow, you are crazy if you think
I’m going to be able to get them to concentrate on remote learning,” she said. “We will catch up on what needs to be in their brains the day after.”