Less snow = school year cut short
With banked time, some lucky students can plow into summer
Kids in the nation’s “snow belts” didn’t have a white Christmas — but they’ll get an early summer vacation.
At least nine of the snowiest U.S. cities had less than 60% of their average snowfall this year, and schools across the nation are deciding what to do with an unusually high number of leftover emergency weather days. Many schools will let students finish the year early.
Others will improvise. In Marion County, W.VA., students won’t go to school on six scheduled Fridays in the last eight weeks of the year because the district used only two of the eight snow days, administrative assistant Randy Farley says.
Having six spare days is abnormal for the district. “In the past two years we have used them all,” Farley says. “Usually we come very close to the mark.” Elsewhere: -In Westmont, Ill., Community Unit School District 201 didn’t use any snow days so it will end the year five days early and create two early dismissal days, Superintendent Kevin Carey says.
-Kent-cky’s Warren County Public Schools used only one snow day in stark contrast to last year’s 15. On average, it has 5.2 snow days a year. Students will get out earlier than usual as a result, Director of Student Services Pat Stewart says.
-B-rlington, Vt., got only half of its usual snowfall. The district had no snow days and won’t use its two emergency days that would have been added to the end of the year, communications specialist Phuket Jennings says.
It’s not good news for all. Parents whose children require day care are anxious about taking off work or finding outside help, says Ellen Galinsky, president of Families and Work Institute.
“It’s an example of the realities that families live with these days — their arrangements feel like a house of cards and if one card falls over, the rest topple,” Galinsky says.
Others see the flexible calendar as an opportunity. For the first time, West Virginia’s Martinsburg-berkeley County Parks and Recreation department will open pools before Memorial Day weekend because the schools will be out, Executive Director Steve Catlett says.
“This has never happened in the 36 years I have been here,” he says.
The department hopes to use the early start as a way to make extra money. It plans to add an extra week at the beginning of summer camp.
“Our best business is in the beginning of the summer. More pool days for us — more business,” Catlett says. “The amount we have saved on heating costs over the warm winter has been pretty substantial, too.”