stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2013-02-27 10:28 am
stevenpiziks) wrote2013-02-27 10:28 am
Snow Days
When I was a kid, snowy mornings made us turn on the radio to listen for school closings. Oh, the sense of cozy excitement! This didn't change when I first became a teacher, either. A few years into my career, they finally started a phone chain so we teachers could get alerted faster and more reliably. Just two years ago, we started getting calls from a computer. The computer call comes even earlier--usually before I'm even up--but we've lost the anticipation while the radio announcer goes through the list. Ah well.
Anyway, the call came this morning--snow day!
We didn't really want one. We were on mid-winter break last week, and no one is really up for a day off right now. But the weather is the weather. Still, I've lately seen a number of complaints about snow days. People have leveled complaints about them, usually at the schools, for daring to close because of bad weather. One person I read said that if McDonald's stays open during bad weather, schools certainly can.
I thought I'd explain a few things about snow days here.
Why did the school close? Geez, I hate that. I mean, there wasn't that much snow. It's for safety. Students have to wait outside for the bus on those bad roads, and bad weather turns even safe drivers into deadly hazards. We don't children at curbside to get plowed into by a car that skids out of control. We also don't want a car to smash into a busload of kids. Also remember that a number of high schools allow students to drive. While smart parents would not allow their inexperienced teenaged drivers near a car during bad weather, we all know that lots of parents are either asleep when their teenagers leave for school, or they just don't care what their kids do, and these inexperienced drivers all end up in a cluster around the high school on severely bad roads--all of them potential death on four wheels. Finally, buses are far more unwieldy to maneuver than cars. Even though a car might be able to get down that subdivision street easily enough, a bus might not, especially if hills are involved. It doesn't matter how much or little snow there is; it matters only how safe the roads are. If even one kid gets hurt or killed, the entire community will howl that the school should have closed.
Other businesses stay open. I have to go to work, for example. Even minimum wage workers have to show up at McDonald's. Why do teachers get to stay home? Shouldn't they have to go to work, too? In some districts, teachers do show up for snow days. In others, they don't. In some districts, teachers aren't paid for snow days. In others, they are. In any case, deciding that a school should stay open based on the decisions of any for-profit corporation is disingenuous at best.
What am I supposed to do with my kid? I still have to go to work, and I can't leave my second-grader home alone all day. That's difficult, no question. However, I think you're misreading the role of a school in the community. A school is not a daycare center. A school's function is to educate its students in the safest way possible, not provide a substitute for parental care or responsibility. It's definitely unfair that our society is set up so that poorer families are hit harder by snow days, since poorer parents are less able to afford a day off from work to stay home with snowbound kids. Unfortunately, schools aren't set up to solve this problem, and it's unfair to blame them for it. It would probably be a good idea to have a backup plan already in place for snow days, such as arranging for a friend, relative, or neighbor who is willing to watch kids on snow days.
Couldn't the school stay open with a skeleton crew so parents who need to could drop their children off? There may not be much formal instruction, but the kids would be in school and I could go to work! Again, a school is not a daycare center. Besides, in order for school to be considered in session by law, a certain percentage of students must be in attendance, and there must be a certain number of adults to supervise them. Without knowing in advance how many students would be there, the school wouldn't be able to staff properly. Also, federal law states that when school is open, students who qualify must be given free or reduced lunch. A "skeleton day" would require that federal lunch be made available, and this would mean opening and running at full tilt the entire food system on a snow day, again without knowing how many actual students would arrive.
Why did our district close and the district next to us stay open? The roads are exactly the same! The decision to close is up to the individual superintendent or assistant superintendent. Some districts seem to take pride in a "we never close" policy, others seem to close at the merest whisper of snow. Often, the "we never close" districts come under fire from parents. Several years ago, the district where I teach refused to close during an ice storm, and so many parents simply kept their children at home, the district couldn't count the day as a school day. After that, they became more judicious about closing for bad weather.
The primary concern around snow days is student safety.
Anyway, the call came this morning--snow day!
We didn't really want one. We were on mid-winter break last week, and no one is really up for a day off right now. But the weather is the weather. Still, I've lately seen a number of complaints about snow days. People have leveled complaints about them, usually at the schools, for daring to close because of bad weather. One person I read said that if McDonald's stays open during bad weather, schools certainly can.
I thought I'd explain a few things about snow days here.
Why did the school close? Geez, I hate that. I mean, there wasn't that much snow. It's for safety. Students have to wait outside for the bus on those bad roads, and bad weather turns even safe drivers into deadly hazards. We don't children at curbside to get plowed into by a car that skids out of control. We also don't want a car to smash into a busload of kids. Also remember that a number of high schools allow students to drive. While smart parents would not allow their inexperienced teenaged drivers near a car during bad weather, we all know that lots of parents are either asleep when their teenagers leave for school, or they just don't care what their kids do, and these inexperienced drivers all end up in a cluster around the high school on severely bad roads--all of them potential death on four wheels. Finally, buses are far more unwieldy to maneuver than cars. Even though a car might be able to get down that subdivision street easily enough, a bus might not, especially if hills are involved. It doesn't matter how much or little snow there is; it matters only how safe the roads are. If even one kid gets hurt or killed, the entire community will howl that the school should have closed.
Other businesses stay open. I have to go to work, for example. Even minimum wage workers have to show up at McDonald's. Why do teachers get to stay home? Shouldn't they have to go to work, too? In some districts, teachers do show up for snow days. In others, they don't. In some districts, teachers aren't paid for snow days. In others, they are. In any case, deciding that a school should stay open based on the decisions of any for-profit corporation is disingenuous at best.
What am I supposed to do with my kid? I still have to go to work, and I can't leave my second-grader home alone all day. That's difficult, no question. However, I think you're misreading the role of a school in the community. A school is not a daycare center. A school's function is to educate its students in the safest way possible, not provide a substitute for parental care or responsibility. It's definitely unfair that our society is set up so that poorer families are hit harder by snow days, since poorer parents are less able to afford a day off from work to stay home with snowbound kids. Unfortunately, schools aren't set up to solve this problem, and it's unfair to blame them for it. It would probably be a good idea to have a backup plan already in place for snow days, such as arranging for a friend, relative, or neighbor who is willing to watch kids on snow days.
Couldn't the school stay open with a skeleton crew so parents who need to could drop their children off? There may not be much formal instruction, but the kids would be in school and I could go to work! Again, a school is not a daycare center. Besides, in order for school to be considered in session by law, a certain percentage of students must be in attendance, and there must be a certain number of adults to supervise them. Without knowing in advance how many students would be there, the school wouldn't be able to staff properly. Also, federal law states that when school is open, students who qualify must be given free or reduced lunch. A "skeleton day" would require that federal lunch be made available, and this would mean opening and running at full tilt the entire food system on a snow day, again without knowing how many actual students would arrive.
Why did our district close and the district next to us stay open? The roads are exactly the same! The decision to close is up to the individual superintendent or assistant superintendent. Some districts seem to take pride in a "we never close" policy, others seem to close at the merest whisper of snow. Often, the "we never close" districts come under fire from parents. Several years ago, the district where I teach refused to close during an ice storm, and so many parents simply kept their children at home, the district couldn't count the day as a school day. After that, they became more judicious about closing for bad weather.
The primary concern around snow days is student safety.