Moncton school custodian foretells snow days for students

MONCTON – Students at a Moncton middle school are convinced their custodian has special powers.

There was a time when students at Lewisville Middle School simply walked passed custodian Dana Duff without a second thought.

“It was kind of lonely in your own little world working away and not really being noticed,” he said.

That’s until the kids discovered Duff has secret powers.

“I started just predicting snow days and the word got around that I was pretty accurate in doing so,” he said.

Now he’s become somewhat of a celebrity at the school. Student Luke Knowles says Duff is the go-to guy for kids eager to hear if they’re about to get a day off.

“He’s got pretty good accuracy,” he said. “He’s gotten like one wrong this year.”

Principal Sue Kelly says even the teachers rely on his predictions.

“He’s very, very known for his accuracy, in fact he is probably over 80 per cent right,” she said. “The teachers will ask him, ‘Should I stop at grocery store? Will we be here tomorrow?'”

“I do go to him,” said teacher Jennifer Brown. “He’s our number one guy and he’s pretty much bang on all the time.”

The students say they’re not sure how he does it.

But Duff says he sneaks away on his breaks to study the latest weather predictions and weather maps.

“Our weather here can change so quickly you know just move a little bit north and bang we got it,” he said.

But snow day or not, no matter what he’s calling for, Duff’s message to the kids is always the same.

“I say, ‘Make utmost sure that homework is complete and still get to bed on time cause Mr. Duff could be wrong.'”