People go to extreme lengths to receive something they desire. Flushing ice cubes down the toilet, wearing pajamas inside out, and a spoon under the pillow are all superstitions students add to their bed time routine in hopes of receiving a magical snow day experience.
Many students love snow days regardless of the reason. They’re something to look forward to every winter, but many don’t know the people and moving parts behind the decision to call a snow day. It takes long nights, early morning drives, and lots of communication between many groups of people within the district.
For Northview Public Schools, the first person typically involved in the snow day decision making process is the Director of Transportation and Safety, Tim Christian. Christian is hands-on involved in the process, oftentimes really early in the morning and is reliant on communication in order to make a decision for drivers on these winter days.
“My role is kind of boots on the ground, so I’m up fairly early checking the roads themselves. We try to just see all those conditions and whats it going to be like, and then make a good decision, safety wise,” Christian said. “Buses are really good in the snow, our decision making is whats it going be for vehicles and young drivers, our high school students, and will they be able to safely get to school or get home.”
In extreme weather scenarios, neighboring school districts communicate with each other prior to making a snow day decision.
“I’m also in a thread with transportation directors or other individuals from other schools,” Christian said. “So we’re always texting back and forth. ‘Who’s doing what?’ ‘What do you see?’ ‘What are you guys thinking?’ So we can make good decisions on what other people are doing as well.”
Digging deeper into Christian’s mindset, young drivers and students are his top priority when it comes to safety concerns.
“This might be their first winter driving in snow and sleet and tricky tricky roads, slippery roads . . . that is a big factor in how we make our decision as a group,” Christian said. “It’s not necessarily the buses . . . It’s more about young high school drivers, teachers, and staff. Not everyone lives in Northview, so many people come a long way.”
Interim deputy superintendent John Kraus is the communicator for all things snow day, but also is involved in a lot of time consuming tasks surrounding the decision making process.
“I have responsibilities for notifying certain groups, including our administrative team, other directors who run our pool, run our PAC, getting text messages out,” Kraus said. “Sometimes I’m also included in evaluating ‘what are the conditions’, especially if it’s the night before. There are also some National Weather Service broadcasts or webinars that we’ll sit in on and evaluate kind of what’s going on.”
Some in the community wonder why the district does not have online instruction days instead of snow days, for an abundance of snow days potentially extends the school year into summer vacation. In the past, the state has allowed for 15 days of virtual instruction which Northview has used as a solution for going over the state allowed amount of snow days. Northview also used these virtual instruction days when juniors and sophomores had statewide testing days, allowing students not testing to work on school assignments from home. This year, the state took away funding for these days which many students have not been aware of and have questioned.
“I think that’s important, because I think that’s [the disappearance of 15 virtual instruction days] on the minds of students, and probably parents and families,” Kraus said.
Despite the uncertainty of this, Kraus like Christian understands school schedules are set prior to the school year and is considerate in not changing those plans.
“I don’t think we would shorten spring break or anything, you know, people set calendars around those, but we would rather figure out a way to make that time up if we had to, than make a decision that would put people in jeopardy and not be safe,” Kraus said.
Kraus and Christian report their reasoning and opinion on the decision they would make to call a snow day or not to Northview Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Christina Hinds.
“The superintendent is the final decision maker. So I collect recommendations from Mr. Christian and then I also check in with our director of facilities. His name is Mr. Klekotka. I ask how our campus is looking? Is it icy? Is it snow covered? Are people able to get onto campus and get into our building safely? Then it’s the outside roads. What does it look like within our district? Will our buses be able to make it or not? And then, the National Weather Service just started doing webinars,” Hinds said.
Hinds takes information and insight from Christian, Kraus, Klekotka, the National Weather Service and neighboring districts and then makes the final decision for our district. Kraus then communicates Hinds decision through automated calls and text messages to students and parents.
When bad weather hits, the decision to call a snow day involves a lot of people and a lot of work. It is well known that students will always want a snow day whenever a winter weather incident occurs. Rest assured, whether it is the decision students hope for or not, student safety is always the top priority and snow days will always remain magical.
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