Comments for sursumcorda.salemsattic.com/post/school-closures

Comment #5294

2024-09-29T10:41:44Z

I lived in a land of snow days before I moved to a land of hurricane days. The difference, I learned, was that either school could and would pack a certain number of expected cancellations into the calendar. They might not tell us about it, but they were budgeted. But planning for 5 hurricane days in the fall semester did not guarantee that there wouldn't be 4 days of storms in the spring semester. Whereas in snow country, they didn't have to plan for the earlier semester's delays at all, just the spring.

I don't think anyone effectively planned for this year's storm season... :)

Comment #5293

2024-09-25T13:48:20Z

I think they weren't as fussy about the number of school days when I was in elementary school. I know they used to count half days as whole days on occasion. Then again, I was completely unaware of how many total days we were in school (other than "too many"), so as long as they didn't take away from the mid-year vacations, I probably wouldn't have noticed if they'd slipped in an extra day or two at the end.

Comment #5292

2024-09-25T12:22:24Z

Our school has 5 snow days built into the calendar. The official last day of school is June 9, but depending on the number of snow days, it could be as late as June 16. If we use 2 snow days, it would be June 11.

I think the October storm of 2011 wreaked havoc, because schools were closed more than 5 days and that was only through October! I don't remember what they did. That may have been the year that school went into the June 20-something range. There have to be 180 days of school, so they took days from spring vacation time and teacher work days, too.

As a kid, I don't remember making up snow days, but maybe I was just unaware of the days built into the calendar for that purpose.