There are probably some who wondered why the decision to close school Tuesday was made last night without a single snowflake coming down. The forecast is calling for 6-10 inches of snow this afternoon and tonight with high winds starting in the early evening. Sometimes forecasts are wrong as storms change their path or weaken as they move, but this time the weather forecasters are sure of their predictions. Enough so that Lincoln and Omaha made the decision to call off school and declare a snow emergency last night in anticipation of possible blizzard-like conditions this evening.
Maybe we could have tried an early out, but the day would have been spent trying to guess when to let out so the kids could get home before the storm made road conditions dangerous. In these situations not much learning takes place as everybody looks out the window watching the snow fall and wondering when the call will be made to send everyone home. I scheduled 184 student days on the school calendar with the expectation that we would have school on 180 of those days. So far we have avoided using any for fall sports, which means after today there are 3 “snow days” left. It is important to maximize instructional time because the state aid formula rewards school districts that are above the average number instructional hours. That average is derived from schools in our comparability group. Basically, that means that the more hours we have school, the more state aid we receive. Last year our instructional time allowance, as it is called, was over $121,000. This aid will be more difficult to obtain in future years as schools start increasing their student time in school to try and qualify for the time allowance.
Students enjoy the day off and be careful on the roads. Don’t travel if you don’t have to.
