Snow days are anything but play for local schools
For them, it is a day off, no school, perhaps sledding or playing video games or watching TV, reading a book or a host of other enjoyable things, which keep them out of the classroom for the day.
Teachers too, don’t mind a day off, a chance to gather themselves, catch up with their duties and get some work done around the house.
However, with the recent rash of polar vortexes wreaking havoc in Amish Country, days off are coming as fast and furious as the cold northwestern winds that bring in frigid cold.
Unlike other years when snow was the main culprit, this year it has been subzero temperatures which have forced schools to cancel. The dangers of children waiting for the bus and traveling on dangerous roads in the early morning hours with temperatures hovering near minus 10 degrees have sent snow days soaring.
While fun for at first, missing school can take a toll.
Many parents who work must try to figure out where their children will go during a snow day. Some take days off to tend to the kids. Others send them to a sitter. Either way, when the days stack up, so too do bills or personal days.
For school districts, the challenges are multiple.
“We’ve had to cancel meetings, shifted building inspections and moved duties around to deal with the issue,” said Joe Edinger, East Holmes School District superintendent.
“But what makes the biggest impact when you miss this much school is that everyone gets out of the routine, and it is tough to get back into it. Kids stay up later, sleep in longer, and this is a bad time to lose that flow of learning because of testing. The problem with so many makeup days is that often times they take place after State testing is over, which doesn’t help our kids.”
Edinger said that Ohio Governor John Kasich is seriously considering invoking four additional snow days for Ohio schools, which would up that number from five to nine days, missed days which would not have to be made up.
Despite that, the possibility that these snow days could eat into both the spring break and summer break time means parents face questions about vacation time.
Jeff Woods, principal at West Holmes Middle School, said they continue to meet with administration and staff as much as possible during off days. Woods too said it takes away from preparing kids for State testing, and these are days students cannot afford to miss.
“We are already on such a tight schedule when it comes to preparing for testing, that these days off really come into play,” said Woods. “It really throws our teachers’ schedules and the learning curve for the kids way out of whack.”
Woods said inclement weather and snow days are fun, for a while, but because it throws everyone’s schedule so far off balance, it becomes a deterrent when the days run so closely together in bunches.
Spring break can be handled fine, because school districts prepare for it.
Snow days, on the other hand, show up out of nowhere.
“Teachers really have to learn to go with the flow because we never know when it might happen,” said Woods. “We are all creatures of habit, but this many days off creates a real headache.”
But he said that pales in comparison to the people who truly suffer bigger headaches than anyone, the athletic directors (ADs).
Athletic directors may be under the gun as much as any school employees during these freakish weather patterns.
Games being slung to the wayside makes for crises in many ways for ADs, who must scramble not just to reschedule the games, but to make sure an entire community of people are aware the game for that night has been canceled.
And it isn’t just players, coaches and fans who need to be aware of a cancellation and rescheduling. Concession workers slated to work the game, the local police department, media and officials must also be notified.
Then there is the task of rescheduling games. One game is not an issue. But the more games that build up due to inclement weather, the more ADs must put together a gigantic scheduling nightmare.
“It is extremely difficult, especially this year, because the Eastern District tournament starts a week earlier,” said Lee Ann Race, AD at West Holmes. “It gets to the point where your back is up against the wall, and we are just about there. If we miss any more nights, we will have to consider eliminating non-league games because we won’t schedule boys and girls games on the same night.”
Nor do teams want to cram a bunch of games into a short time span.
That actually happened to Denny Tucci’s Malvern Hornets recently, but the longtime Hornets coach said it isn’t as much of a burden on the coaches and players as it is the ADs.
“The kids love playing a lot of games, because they would rather play than practice anyway,” said Tucci.
Like many local programs, if they aren’t playing games they are putting in grueling two-hour practices anyway, so the difference there is not huge.
Then there is the plight of figuring out when to have school, delay or simply give in to Old Man Winter and cancel all together.
That chore falls upon the shoulders of superintendents, whom often turn to their bus coordinators, who in turn seek the advice of the bus drivers.
Superintendents are put in a position in which they simply can’t seem to win. They cancel school, and the sun comes out and what started out as a torturous-looking day turns beautiful. They have school, and sudden bursts of snow create dangerous situations.
While most students and teachers alike relish that day off, or better yet a two-hour delay, it is very tough but incredibly important for superintendents to get it right.
Most err on the side of safety, and that has led to nine missed school days already in East Holmes, despite it being just the beginning of February.
Whether or not more snow days are forgiven by Governor Kasich, the underlying problems of these days off lie just under the crust of snow, bubbling and broiling, just waiting to erupt once the snow and cold dissipate and school is back in session.
It creates a game of catch-up, building a maze of changes that make school days one interesting puzzle to solve.