While Mother Nature works her magic by blanketing the ground in layers of snow, students buzz with excitement as they check updates for school closings, discussing with their friends the chances of a snow day. Snow days are an unexpected break that can evoke negative and positive reactions from students, teachers and parents.

The primary concern regarding snow days is how many of them can be accumulated before our spring break begins to get cut short. Currently, Ridge’s policy is that snow days in excess of three will be made up during the spring break recess, meaning less days of spring break. This rule causes mixed opinions within the student body whenever a snowstorm of any magnitude is forecasted.

Expressing his emotions about snow days, Jonathan Salomon’ 18  says,  “while snow days are a cheerful occasion, I do hope that the snow day is actually worth it. I don’t want just a dusting of snow to be the reason my spring break gets cut short. So many of my friends are thinking of going away for spring break, so I would really love to have all of my spring break. I think snow days should only be called when the snowy weather puts the lives of students and faculty in danger, for the entire school day.” Jonathan voices an opinion that is unexpected by some, but overall rational in reasoning. While snow days are seen as a great opportunity for students to snuggle back up in bed, relax and maybe have an extra day to work on an assignment, it is important that the long-term is planned for as well.

When spring break is upon Ridge High School, students get excited to soak up the amazing change in weather as the warmth of the sun finally shines its rays on Basking Ridge. Preferably, students want to take advantage of this warm weather to vacation or be more productive. Juniors and seniors use this time to finalize plans for prom and prepare for the AP exams. It would be in the best interest of the students if they had their entire spring break conserved.

Another option to combat myriad snow days, Ridge may add school days to the end of the year if there are more than three snow days. As you can imagine, this proposition has caused a significant stir as it is seen as controversial to the students and teachers if more school days are added. The primary argument against more school days is that the dates of special occasions will have to be altered. In other words, the calendar of important dates will have to be significantly modified to accommodate for the addition of school days.

Sri Guttikonda ’20 states: “I think that adding school days could get messy because it would not only cause a realignment of the present year, but also future years. If our school year does get extended by even a few days, this means our summer would have to be extended by the same number of days, which means our consecutive school year would start at a later date”.

Guttikonda brings up a valid point: how would fewer days of summer be accounted for? Would the next school year start a few days later than originally planned, or would there be no change at all? Furthermore, what would happen if families already planned vacations for the day school originally ended?

Ultimately, no one can control the weather nor can anyone certainly dictate the harshness of winter. Adding school days or taking away part of spring break present themselves as two options Ridge’s administration must choose between.