Schools have a set number of days that students need to attend school for.  There are very little days that students and faculty get off throughout the year. There are the occasional three day weekends, regular weekends and the scheduled breaks but that is about it. The main reason that school gets cancelled is because of snow days. Being from the Northeast we are all accustomed to having at least one snow day throughout the school year.  These days are canceled because it is snowing out, roads are too icy or even that they weren’t taken care of in time for students and other commuters to get to school. After a certain amount of them, the school begins to extend into summer. In past years, we have had school extended into almost the end of June. Having school in June is never easy because the feeling of summer is already present.

At Ipswich High School, the opinion about snow days is quite varied. Like you would expect, students tend to enjoy having a snow day whereas most teachers disagree. We asked senior Alyssa Terry what she thought about snow days. “Snow days are relaxing to me and allow me to catch up on work and have a break from the endless school days.” We could relate to Alyssa the most. Even if it is just one day off, it is a nice change of pace.

On the other hand our Principal, Mr. Mitchell, thinks that snow days disrupts the flow of learning. But he can not deny that it is a nice break to relax and catch up on work.  His biggest concern in the winter months are having too many snow days which will cause an interference with school. In public schools, we are required to have a total of 180 days. Leaving our school and superintendent responsible for figuring out how to get those days back.

We asked Principle Mitchell what he thinks the best way to make up days would be.  “To make up snow days, the most reasonable way is to add more days at the end of the year, but if we could try blizzard bags then testing would not have to be pushed back”.  A blizzard bag is a fairly new idea that was introduced around this time last year. A blizzard bag is basically the concept of having classwork and homework sent home. The idea is to give students the missed work and avoid falling too far behind.  

As seniors, we wanted to know the opinions of others on how we do not have to make up snow days. Mr. Mitchell commented on how seniors do not have to make up snow days but they still have to have a certain amount of days in a school year. Students tend to have very different opinions. We found that many students agreed on this statement. With the new technology that most teachers are using, it is hard to miss classwork and homework. It is beginning to be harder to fall behind, snow day or not.