With the recent blizzard here in Manhattan we all experienced something new — two-hour delayed school days. I personally liked the chance to get some extra sleep, but there are some who did not get to experience that luxury. Some had issues arriving at school two hours later because of the weather and their parents’ jobs.

Even with these issues, it was still a good thing to let the snow removal team try to treat the roads before they had many cars on them. It also gave a chance for people to get their cars out of the snow and make sure people drove safely and carefully. 

The other nice thing the two-hour delay gave us was a chance for the sun to come out. Despite the cold weather the sun was able to melt some of the snow and made the roads a slush of sorts.

Some people still believe the roads were not safe even with a two-hour delay. They believe we should have just done another snow day. The number of people that were not in school that day was a lot. But those people could have just done the work at home because everything is on Canvas anymore.

The last amazing thing about the two-hour delay is that it counts as a full day. So we do not have to count it as a snow day. 

Another option some schools have done in the past is have a virtual learning day. It does not count as a snow day and won’t have to be made up at the end of the year. Although some kids would not want to get on a Zoom or other virtual form to attend class. It would count as an absence for them and would not hurt those who attended class. The only matter about this I believe would be a problem is having teachers have a plan for the virtual day. The plans would have to be on the fly and be relevant to class. But otherwise it sounds great for the student end of things.

With each school year we only get a certain amount of snow days. I believe if we get the chance to not count it as a snow day and still get to stay at home, it sounds like a win-win to me.