Number of snow day school closures mounting in Nova Scotia

HALIFAX – Students in Halifax were in class Wednesday morning, but were dismissed early due to the impending bad weather.

While many kids have enjoyed the snow days, it hasn’t necessarily been enjoyable for their parents.

“I’m not loving it,” said parent Sara Richardson before picking up her daughter.

“We’ve had too many,” she said. “And parents have things to do as well so it’s kind of hard to come in the middle of the day and pick them up.”

So far this winter, Halifax Regional School Board has had four and a half board-wide snow day closures. Some individual schools have had up to six and a half days.

Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board, on the other hand, has had nine days of board-wide school closures. According to a spokeswoman, schools located north of Smokey Mountain have had an additional three days of closures due to weather.

Halifax Regional School Board spokesman Doug Hadley says they don’t take the decision to close schools lightly and the process, which begins at 4 a.m., involves consulting a meteorologist.

“We know we can’t please everyone. What we try to do is make a decision that we believe is in the best interest of the students that we’re trying to educate and transport,” he said.

“If someone is going to have a concern with that, we’re open to listening to their concerns, but ultimately we make a decision that’s in the best interest of 48,000 students.”

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Some parents say they appreciate that consideration.

“It’s definitely important that, if it’s not a safe environment for walking or driving, kids have to be at home in safe hands,” said M. Ali Ülkü.

But education consultant and director of Schoolhouse Consulting, Paul Bennett, believes schools boards are too quick to declare snow days and says it’s affecting the students’ education.

“I’m in favour of closing school when the road dangers are so severe and extreme weather conditions put anyone at risk,” said Bennett.

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“This is not the situation in Nova Scotia. Many days are cancelled when you can question the decisions and when there is no real risk to students riding buses for the most part which are safer than regular cars.”

For days when a storm closure is necessary, Bennett suggests a focus on e-learning or ‘blizzard bags,’ which are used in some American schools. The knapsacks include learning material students can take home during storm closures.

Education Minister Karen Casey says she is concerned about lost instruction days but understands the weather has been poor this winter and supports the school boards’ decisions.

She says she knows schools have been working to make up for lost days but if too many days are lost, she admits she has options.

“It’s certainly within my purview to extend the school year,” she said. “I would want to make sure that we had taken advantage of every opportunity to keep students and teachers in the classroom before we extended the year, but that is an option.”