On February 22, New York City experienced yet another major snow storm, the first blizzard in a decade, which covered streets and homes in a thick layer of snow. The heavy snowfall led NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to call for an authentic no-remote-learning snow day last Monday. However, the following day, students and staff were required to attend school for in-person instruction leading to difficult commutes.

On social media, many parents and students expressed their concerns about sending their children to school: the slick roads made travel difficult and extremely dangerous, and piles of snow blocked sidewalks. 

Considering the weather, the THHS administration installed a “special schedule” for February 23 and 24. Ellen Fee, Assistant Principal of Organization, sent emails to the community to inform them of the change: students and faculty would attend zero band at 8:00 AM and first band at 8:47 AM, along with shortened bands throughout the day. This schedule allowed more time for students to commute to school while combating the snow.

Ms. Fee said, “the priority is that all students are safe, staff are safe, [and that] no one’s rushing to get here because they don’t want to be late.”

Despite the schedule, there was still a noticeable dip in attendance. According to Ms. Fee, student attendance was 75% on February 24, 83% on February 25, and 87% on February 26. Over forty teachers were absent on Tuesday. 

“The staff really needed to prioritize their own family and make sure that their own family was safe, and that was difficult,” said Ms. Fee. “There are a lot of teachers with young children, and it’s really important that they are home with their children if their children are off school.”

The lack of student and teacher attendance was also related to flight delays for those who traveled during the mid-winter break. 

A number of teachers were chaperoning the Greece and Italy trip and were unable to return back to New York by February 23 due to the extreme weather conditions. Students and teachers did not return until February 24.

One of the teachers that attended the trip was Instructional Support Services Teacher & Social Studies Teacher Frank Spitaleri.   

“We were supposed to have come back on Monday, but we all ended up coming back on Wednesday due to [the weather],” he said. “The original plan was to fly through Frankfurt and then go back to JFK from Germany, [but] our second leg of the journey from Frankfurt to New York was cancelled…so it made more sense for us to rebook on other flights. I think it worked out the best in the end just because we got two extra days in Athens.”

Rafal Olechowski, Assistant Principal of World Languages and Social Studies, said, “crossing sidewalks is not easy…especially in crosswalks…the farther away you are from central places.”

Many students voiced their thoughts about how the week went.

Freshman Sydney Xu had been excited to experience the snow day, however she did not agree with the city’s decision to return to in-person learning. She said, “It would’ve been more beneficial to have a remote day… [because] students ended up not doing much the whole day in school. Having a remote day would’ve allowed everyone to be safer while still completing assignments.”

Sophomore Avery Hai said that the school’s special schedule made “things easier since it [allowed] me more time to comfortably get to school.” 

Ms. Fee said that if students were able to commute safely, they should “do their best” to go to school. But if their parents or guardians did not want them commuting through unshoveled sidewalks, she didn’t “think it was safe to come that Tuesday.”

Fortunately the weather has begun to calm down and conditions appear to be getting better with the higher temperatures in recent days. Roads are no longer littered with snow and sidewalks are becoming increasingly safer for pedestrians. 

“I didn’t feel so unprepared [for the storm] because I did notice that there was a lot more of a rapid response this time around to the snow,” said Mr. Spitaleri. “When I came back on Wednesday, the streets looked pretty…clear for the most part. In that regard, I think [the snow] was not so bad.”