On Monday, schools across the Northeast shut down or planned to close early to prepare for a blizzard. New York City Public Schools planned to be open Monday but canceled all after-school activities and field trips, according to the city government website. Schools will probably be closed Tuesday, the website said.
Closing school is a tough call, said school superintendents from across the country. The decision often requires hours of preparation and discussion among administrators, local officials, road crews and meteorologists. Most school leaders said they take a better-safe-than-sorry approach, but it can be hard to do as the number of days off climbs.
“We lose a lot of sleep over it,” said Gregory Hutchings, superintendent of Shaker Heights schools in Ohio.
So why wouldn’t schools call off classes when weather seems like it could be dangerous? Here are a few reasons.
1. Forecasts can be wrong.
With every winter storm threat, superintendents wake in the wee hours to consider the latest weather maps or drive their local roads. One February day last year, Stratford, Connecticut, schools Superintendent Janet Robinson was on a forecasting conference call at 4:15 a.m. Within 30 minutes, and with the help of the schools’ facilities manager, she decided to cancel classes for the sixth time that year.
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But in Massachusetts, where snow days are no surprise, it was rare for schools to close for several days at a time, Goodman said. The results might be different in states that rarely encounter extreme weather or for schools that face a major, one-time disruption.
“The fact that snow days are not harmful is because schools and teachers know how to deal with them,” Goodman said.
Not all learning is lost when school is out, though. Educators across the country said they’re urging students to check out Khan Academy and other online learning tools. Some said teachers now assign homework in advance so students can stay on task. Last year, some school districts experimented with virtual school days taught at home through school-provided laptops and tablets.
Hutchings, the Shaker Heights, Ohio, superintendent, said some in his district assign “blizzard bags” of schoolwork for students to dip into whenever they’re out of class, and it is considering online programs that would allow students to interact with teachers from home — at least, between snowball fights and trips down the sledding hill.
“The first couple (snow days) are OK,” Hutchings said. “When you get into five, six, enough is enough. I have a plea with Mother Nature to ease up a little bit.”
