I was shocked, and yet quite relieved, to find that we had a snow day. As I wrote during our ice day last year, we’ve had delays from time to time, but entire days off for snow are unheard of (that day off due to ice was the first day off that any of the staff could remember). I took advantage of the news and stopped shoveling (after a little while) since it was still quite dark (we were using the lights from the house to see), and this way we could wait until Trevor was awake to help finish the job. Even with Trevor, it took about another two hours to finish the job. Ironically, I had just fixed up that trailer with the intent on trying to get my quad fixed this weekend so I could use it to plow this winter. Connor kept complaining that I clearly took too long in working on that plan. … He’s not wrong.
I don’t have any official word on why we got the snow day this time when they “never used to close school before.” However, I have a few thoughts on the matter. One reason I think it was an issue was the timing of the snowfall. Clearly, the majority of it fell during the night; in fact, it was still falling a bit when I woke up. This did not give the plows enough time to clear even the highway, let alone the main and secondary roads. Another issue is how early in the year this large of a storm hit (especially since it could have easily not been so large of a storm). I don’t think the borough was completely ready to switch from road grating to road plowing and sanding (although, I really don’t know enough about the equipment needed). Additionally, we have had multiple fatalities due to vehicle accidents in the past few days that have shut down the main highways for hours at a time—and that was with better driving conditions.
From the school side, we have a bus driver shortage, even when compared to last year. It took about three busses to get stuck before our ice day was called, but I don’t think that the routes could cover even two busses going down this year (again, I’m extrapolating). Meanwhile, the community has grown considerably in the past ten years—which was, I believe, the last time that such a significant amount of snow has fallen in such a short time just before a morning commute. Personally, I’m glad that the district decided to put student safety first—even if it means readjusting my lesson plans for the next couple of weeks.