When Abdi Dahir found out that he would have to attend school on March 11, he was not happy.

“I was so disappointed,” said Dahir, a freshman. Because of two days of school that were canceled due to the snow, Minneapolis Public Schools decided to hold school on March 11. Schools originally didn’t have school on this day, as it was intended for parent/teacher conferences and professional development days. “It wasn’t even that cold!” said Dahir of the snow days.

“I didn’t even know we didn’t have school on March 11! If they wouldn’t have told us, I just wouldn’t have even known we didn’t have school,” said sophomore MaryAn Garane. “Teachers teach the same things. It won’t make a difference if we make up the day or not.”

On the first snow day, Garane went to school and when she arrived at South, there were about ten other students waiting outside South’s doors. “Next thing I know, janitors say there’s no school,” she said. Garane went home, but said she was quite upset for the rest of day because she couldn’t fall back asleep.
“They can’t just take days off, and then make us make them up,” said sophomore Ky Koepke. “I’m upset.” Over the two days without school, Koepke caught up on her sleep and hung out with some friends. “The day back was really laid back in all my classes,” she said, because of the fact, she said, that most kids didn’t do any work over the snow days.

English teacher Richard Thomas didn’t find that the missed days interrupted his curriculum. “We now have an extra day to enjoy each other’s company and have fun,” he said. But Thomas does think added days are necessary. The district lost money when there was no school, and Thomas said the district can use all the money it can get. For him personally, the snow days allowed him to get stuff done around his house. “I shoveled manure out of the barn!”

Junior Jessie Ellison thinks that the district is adding the two extra days because “they are mean and want more money. If you didn’t want people to miss school, then you shouldn’t have taken them off in the first place.” Ellison said she had a very successful two days off as she got her car ungrounded from her parents.

Freshman Siobhan Young didn’t feel as though her education was hurt by missing the snow days. “Everyone else had the days off too. The teachers were happy they had a snow day too!” Young doesn’t think missing two days of school is very much school to miss. “The random extra day in March won’t matter, but it will be less annoying than at the beginning of summer.”

Growing up, band teacher Scott Carter attended a school in a rural community, where there were many snow days. In Carter’s opinion, making up snow days at the end of the year is the worst. Because of the certain amount of days you need to attend, said Carter, seniors would have to return to school after graduation, something no one would want to do.

Carter isn’t crossing his fingers for another snow day. “I like school! [Snow days] put a lot of strain on families, having to find childcare in an hours notice. Schools are put under stress too, because funding is based on when students are here.”

The two days also interrupted his teaching schedule. On the Wednesday students got back from the snow days there was a band concert, and the missed days cut into their preparation. “It came together really well, but we were a little more scrambled and unorganized before than I would have liked,” said Carter. “But until I can control the weather, we’ll have to smile, suck it up and move forward.”