After a year of its disappearance, falling snow has made its return to the winter grounds of Scotch Plains-Fanwood. Families throughout have recently received multiple calls for announcements of delayed openings, single session days and the dearly missed snow day. Community members wonder how these decisions are made, but little do they know administrators value students’ preferences just as much as the safest approaches for education on a weekday.
“[Snow days] are always a difficult call for any superintendent to make because there’s a range of passionate opinions,” SPF superintendent Dr. Joan Mast told The Fanscotian.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the SPF Board of Education received community feedback on what is somewhat viewed as a fundamental snow day for students. They are given the rare opportunity to go sledding, make snowmen and have snowball fights.
Climate change is now making its comeback to decrease the amount of snow received in the area. There could not have been a more demanding time for a long-awaited snow day in SPF.
Despite the difficulty in deciding to call a snow day, Mast and other administrators must follow a protocol to ensure safety in SPF. The consideration of announcing a snow day depends on the ground, as it should be expected to meet the conditions of being white and slippery enough.
“It all begins with the weather forecast; ongoing, continuous, obsessive watching of the weather,” Mast said.
Weather sources and local emergency management alerts are carefully observed. Consultations with local police and superintendents in surrounding districts are heavily relied upon as well.
“We know that any [snow day] call needs to be made before the wheels of the buses hit the road,” Mast said. “The absolute latest we can make the call without causing complete havoc is 6:15 a.m.”
The safety of staff is also imperative to the Scotch Plains-Fanwood school district. Many staff members have long commutes to school and must be able to safely make it to their classrooms.
Thankfully, snow days and delayed openings rarely occur due to the safe conditions of our school’s campus grounds. With fewer snow days, students will not have to worry about losing days of their Memorial Day Weekend.
However, administrators know that there is no harm in one call for a snow day. Snow is becoming more limited through the years, making many traditional snow day activities tough to preserve. With that, they made sure to determine this year’s snow day call partly based on the community’s input: what’s a better way to kick off the 2024 new year than a day off of school spent beside the fireplace?
“There are long-established rituals to ensure that the weather will turn in favor of a snow day,” Mast said. “So, I ask, if the weather is cooperating and leaning towards a snow day, for all students to wear their pajamas backwards!”
