School Closings From Midwest To Northeast

From stalled buses to stalled attention spans, mounds of white stuff means one thing: It's snow day season.

Across the Midwest to the Northeast, snow and ice have kept teachers and students at home throughout the past week.

For the first time in 12 years, the Chicago Public School system told its 410,000 students to take a snow day today and designated another one for tomorrow, the Associated Press reports.

By midday Wednesday, 20.2 inches of snow had piled up in Chicago. It's the third-largest snow record in a city that takes pride in its winter-weather heartiness. Even President Obama once joked about how the elements don't impede outdoor recess in Chicago, according to Politico.

In New York City, it's last week's snow-induced school closings that are continuing to dump problems on educators, says The New York Times City Room Blogs. The Teachers' Union said yesterday at least 1,000 New York City Department of Education employees found out they'll lose a day of pay for not coming to work on last week's snow day due to confusion over title categorization. Teacher trainers and social workers are among those who thought they were included when the mayor told non-emergency workers to stay home last Thursday.

"I thought I had a snow day," said a school psychologist in Manhattan. "I had no concept that it was a possibility that I was an emergency worker."

After grievances and inquiries, the policy changed yesterday to allow teachers to write a letter explaining their absence and to possibly be excused.

One East Coast educator has had a different lot of luck, however. During a snow day last week, a South Jersey teacher was the sole player in a hotel casino. He hit the jackpot of almost $5 million playing penny slots, reports NBC 10 in Philadelphia.

Comments

[FiredUpRTG]

11:43 AM on 02/08/2011

Has anyone blamed the snow on the new congress coming in January?

[MIMom]

04:04 PM on 02/03/2011

What a bunch of bunk. This should have been made clearer to staff.

[VA Jill]

01:00 PM on 02/03/2011

I live in a part of the country where it snows every winter, but they don't have proper snow removal equipment or policies. It's a major mess every time it snows even a little. Seems to me this not having snow removal equipment etc. is a form of denial. In places like this, it would make more sense to give kids the entire month of January off and shorten summer vacation to 6 weeks. Of course parents who are *used* to the long summer break would probably scream bloody murder.

[TobacXela]

10:22 AM on 02/03/2011

The school where I work had at least 5 snow days in January, and has already had two in February. This is insanity!! A few days were necessary, but a little ice does not a snow day make!

[Redemption Song II]

10:16 AM on 02/03/2011

We're on our second snow day and my son is having a blast: his snow fort is now twice as high (thanks to his hard working happiness in piling up sonw; we've had more time to read through articles some some of his back issues of Kid's National Geographic, his favorite magazine; he's held school for his stuffed animals; build a solar puppy from a kit from Christmas (I was afraid that it wouldn't work, but a strong floor lamp did the trick); and he is currently munching waffles, eggs, bacon and applesauce while watching Sesame Street

Life is good!! :o)

[supportamerica]

10:12 AM on 02/03/2011

So does this mean the kids up North don't get spring break or will they have to go longer to make up for the snow days?

[Mountain Momma]

03:40 PM on 02/03/2011

When we had a particularly rough winter here one year, my kids' school just added 15 minutes to the school day. I doubt it actually replaced the missing instructional time, but it met the letter of the law.

[MIMom]

04:06 PM on 02/03/2011

Depends. Most school plan for X number of days per year -- beyond that, yes they do have to make them up somehow.

[Marcilliane M Basso]

07:30 AM on 02/03/2011

All I can say about all the snow days is, ENOUGH!! my son is so bored being home with me. I mean really you know there has been enough snow day when your kid RATHER go to school then stay home. Yes it can happen!!! All parents and kids need away time from each other and there is nothing wrong with that so hurry up Spring, we need you NOW!!!!!

[lochnessmonster]

06:53 AM on 02/03/2011

I guess the priority is to keep ppl off the streets so they can do clean up. Also, in Chicago, we have the added fun of the below zero temps this time after the big snow.

[intelliwoman]

01:11 PM on 02/03/2011

No actually the priority is to keep your children safe in large part by keeping the buses off the roads.

[changing]

10:26 PM on 02/03/2011

Exactly. Better safe than sorry.

[MG Metiva]

06:01 AM on 02/03/2011

The school closings have bigger impacts on school districts who often use fog delays. As in rural districts, then they have to have snow days because they're a low priority area. Then we wonder why school goes until the end of June.