After being bathed by the sun’s warmth these few days past, many of us would probably like to forget the bitter cold and blackish snow we were faced with just after Christmas of 2010. Indeed, the following January has officially become the snowiest month of the city on record, hailing over 27 inches of snow. The flurries gave New Yorkers much to keep them busy: hearings held by City Council to examine the slow snow removal process, horrendously long train and bus delays endured by the thousands of city commuters, and the ultimate overtime dream to workers of the Department of Sanitation. New York City public schools, along with Hewitt, were granted an official snow day on January 27. Earlier in the month, Hewitt also had a snow day not given to public schools on Wednesday, January 12. But how are snow days determined? How much of nature’s wrath must ensue before we are permitted to stay out of its path?
Surprisingly, the process is pretty simple, if it can even be considered a process at all. Ultimately, it is the mayor’s decision alone as to whether or not public schools will close. According to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s press release concerning the city’s situation on January 27, 2011, a snow day was declared due to transit difficulties and dangerous road and street conditions. Although Mayor Bloomberg has the final say, he is in constant contact with a number of different city officials, such as MTA president Jay Walker, Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Commissioner Joe Bruno, and the officials at the Department of Sanitation. Then, after constant consultation, the mayor announces official public school closures at 5 AM the following day.
Independent schools such as Hewitt are not under the control of the mayor, and all school closures are decided by our Head of School. However, Hewitt generally follows the city’s snow day decisions, but given how far many of our students and faculty travel, our school makes its own decisions.
In a sense, Hewitt students are less affected by the days off, as there were Regents exams scheduled on the January 27 snow day. Public school students may have to add these extra Regents exams to the other Regents exams already scheduled in June. However, Hewitt students may have also had tests or quizzes scheduled that day that had to be pushed back, disrupting the regular routines of both students and teachers. Parents may have had to take an unwanted day off from work in order to watch their kids because all school programs were cancelled. However, despite the disturbances the snow days may have caused, the sense of relief that often accompanies a day off from a busy work schedule was definitely felt in some form by Hewitt students, faculty and staff alike.