Students at Torrington High School have had a large influx of snow days this year. With each cancellation, students build more and more stress about losing spring break and or being released later for summer vacation. As of March 16th, we have had eight cancellations.
According to CT Insider, on February 28th the Hartford area has received “52.3 inches of snow” this winter. It is exclaimed that this amount is 12 inches higher than the average for the point of the winter season we’ve reached. This shows how Connecticut has had a much snowier winter season this year and as a result schools have delayed and cancelled school.
On a snowy Monday morning, there are many things that factor into a delay or cancellation. According to Brian Scott, Principal of Torrington High School, the district has “communication with the Torrington Police Department to make sure roads are safe.” In addition to communication with the TPD, the district communicates with the bus transportation company to make sure the drivers are comfortable and bus stops are safe. Ultimately, the choice “is left to the superintendent of the schools”.
Even with all the different factors that go into deciding whether or not school will still be run or not, sometimes the district makes mistakes. Scott stated how this year “there’s been times we didn’t have a delay and got more snow than intended” and that “we’ve had cancellations and got barely any snow.” This shows how unpredictable the weather is and it isn’t easy to know weather conditions until it starts, but by that point the decision has to be made.
Cities like New York City have implemented virtual learning in place on school days. According to chalkbeat.org, 30% of students were not present in the zoom video. When Scott was asked about if this could be a future possibility to Torrington Public Schools, he showed uncertainty when he stated “there would be pros and cons.” This was followed by the statement about how bad remote learning went during the COVID pandemic, and how it wasn’t beneficial to many students.
Over the past few weeks, there have been rumors circulating around the halls about senior graduation being pushed back. When asked, Scott stated these rumors had “no credibility.” He explained that graduation is planned over a year in advance but “in years like this, seniors will have to take their exams prior to the underclassmen.” With that being said, all rumors about graduation being pushed back are debunked.
