Everybody loves a snow day. For kids, it means a day off of school to play and the snow, while some parents can sleep in and take a day off from work. In high school, a snow day changes everything. Staying up later, pushing off homework, and an excuse to turn off those alarms. 

However, that’s rarely the case  for Ludlow students. With the old Superintendent, Todd Gazda, anyone could almost guarantee a snow day—or at least delay–with only a few inches of snow. There was even times when Gazda would tweet out things suggesting a snow day a night in advance of the announcement. 

For years, a snow day was promised at least a few times a year during winter. But once Todd Gazda left, there was a new sheriff in town. His name is Dr. Frank Tiano, and he does not like snow days. Or any days off for that matter. 

Dr. Tiano is disliked among some students and some staff for his ideals of “No days off” during current school years. In the past year, there was a high temperature heat wave that spread across the town. With highs in the 90s and little to no AC units in the high school, most people expected days off, until more air conditioning was announced or the heat wave passed. Alas, neither happened, so all students had to return to school or take an absence. 

Including the heat wave incident, there have been multiple times where there were mass amounts of snow yet no snow day called, not even delays. This caused a lot of students, parents, and teachers to be a little upset with how Dr. Tiano is handling these situations. 

Not only is the snow not favorable driving conditions, but are definitely not helpful in a busy school environment, including new drivers. Most high school juniors and seniors have gotten their drivers license around the time of Junior year. That’s a lot of new drivers, now put them in an unfamiliar situation, and now you have chaos. 

With parents trying to drop their kids off to get to work, teachers trying to get to their work, and students just trying to park and survive the day, it can be highly unsafe to have all that chaos in one place, in the snow.

This pass week, on December 5th, 2024, Ludlow had its first snowfall of the year. It totaled about 5.4 inches of snow. Most suspected that we would be forced to travel through the snow once again, for it had been a pattern in passed years. However, there was a two-hour delay. 

Although most would think that’s a good thing, most didn’t. The streets were barely plowed, snow was still falling pretty densely, and they hadn’t plowed the parking lots. 

As a new driver myself, I was very uneasy about driving in these weather conditions as well as with my sibling in the car. You can only control yourself in your car and not what others do. When driving in snow you have to be much more aware of your surroundings. Which can be much more stressful. 

Normally, parking is the relief of being done driving until the end of the day, but not in this case. The student parking lots were covered in snow, as well as ice. In the Vets parking lot, no student could see the spot lines or drive over 5mph without worrying about sliding into another car. The back parking lot was no better with the same problem all around. Even the staff had the same complaints for their parking as well. 

Overall, most students and staff believed that there should have been a snow day last Thursday, or they should have made sure the parking lots were cleaned up in the extra two hours everyone was giving. It’s not only tedious, but dangerous for people to be on the roads in those conditions.