How School Calls Snow Days

Mason Sokolowski and Ethan Belanger

Has it ever seemed like it should be a snow day, but you don’t end up getting one? Well, we did some digging and got some information on how snow days are called.

We recently interviewed Mr. Smiley, the principal at West, and he gave us some answers to our questions. We found out the Plymouth-Canton calls the snow days, not Mr. Smiley. The person who calls the snow days is Kurt Tyszkiewicz. Last snow day, he texted Mr. Smiley at 9:30 pm and PCCS called the school day at 4:30 am.

The school district allows up to 6 snow days per year. In our district, we get about 2 to 3 snow days each school year. Some other causes for snow days can be severe ice, windchill under -20 degrees Fahrenheit, and dense fog. If we get more than 6 snow days in a year, we have to start making it up school. We can make it up by adding 1 or 2 days or adding about 4 minutes to each day.

It’s possible for one school to have a snow day but not the others. For example, West could have a snow day, whereas East wouldn’t, despite being in the same district. This could happen by a power outage or a pipe bursting. A snow day has to be called before 5:00 in the morning because the bus drivers leave the bus depot at 5:30 am. Most of them are called around 3-4:00 in the morning.                  

To sum it all up, that is how snow days are called. We hope you enjoyed!