Snow Days or No Days? What the Hilltopper Thinks

February 6th, 2025: Besides being our awesome editor Amelie Zosa’s birthday, February 6th was also a day of disappointment for many young Needhamites. Why? Unlike almost every surrounding town, Needham Public Schools did not have a snow day. 

Here at the Hilltopper, we recognize that there are a lot of benefits to snow days. Many of us remember growing up in a much snowier, colder environment than we are used to now, as we were all in early elementary school during the snowiest winter in Massachusetts history from 2014 to 2015. When we were little, snow days were the best surprise: the result of lots of wishing, hoping, and a spoon underneath all of our pillows. 

In many ways, snow days can act as a callback to our childhood. One Hilltopper member reflects, “I really appreciate the childlike whimsy of everyone consulting the "snow day calculator" online, but I try not to get too hung up on it. One time, in elementary school I was so sure we were having a snow day, and when I woke up the next morning and found out we had to go to school I was reduced to tears.”

But what do Hilltopper writers believe about snow days now? According to one Hilltopper member, “I think that snow days are great every once in a while! I think younger kids especially enjoy having snow days to go sledding, and I always loved hanging out with friends and drinking hot chocolate during snow days — those are some of my favorite memories! Nowadays, it's super nice for high schoolers to have a break every once in a while to catch up on sleep during a snow day as well.” Another agrees: “Quite frankly, I miss snow days. I get why teachers and the school board are opposed to them, since it cuts into our summer, but I think the difference is that summer break won't help with the burnout I'm feeling right now, and a snow day will. It's a time for us to have a little fun, catch up on sleep or even homework, and can often be the exact thing we need to get stuff done that has been hanging over our heads for weeks. Last year, when we had a fake snow day (Dr. G called a snow day and it only rained all day), I got a ton of things done for various clubs and extracurriculars I was a part of, including things I would have had no time to do had we gone to school. My biggest issue is that snow days get called at 5 in the morning. God forbid we just make the call at a reasonable hour the day before. And listen, I know the forecast is unpredictable, but maybe we could take a page out of every-other-district-around-us's book and just give the people what they want.”

Besides being a break, however, snow days can also be important for safety, even when it does not appear snowy enough to require one. One Hilltopper member said, “I think snow days should be way more lenient considering the number of teen drivers who commute to school despite unsafe conditions.” Another member agrees, “On instances where we do get extreme weather (not just necessarily snow but harsh rainstorms as well), I think the students' safety needs to be considered, especially when it becomes dangerous for them to get to and from school. Like with that one rainstorm last year, when branches were falling down, power lines had fallen and were exposed everywhere which didn't make getting to school safe nor easy in the morning, especially with the drastic rains as well.”

However, some Hilltopper members are less enthused about these spontaneous disruptions to their routines. “I personally don’t enjoy how unpredictable snow days can be. When a teacher hints that we might have a snow day the next day and it doesn’t happen, it always throws off my whole day, even if I was supposed to have school that day.” The unpredictability is a real drawback of snow days, with many of us feeling like they’d “rather have school on a day where they can expect it” as opposed to an extended school year due to an unexpected day off. “Right now, we are scheduled to have our last day of school fall on a Monday, with the last final falling on a Friday,” notes one detail-oriented Hilltopper member. “This means that we technically don't need to come into school on that Monday. If we were to have a snow day, our last final would be on that Monday, meaning that we would all have to come in for just two hours, which is so annoying.” Still others feel as though some of the childhood magic of snow days has been lost; while they used to be relaxing days spent in pajamas, “now they usually consist of a lot of homework!”

Though many of us here at the Hilltopper are opposed to sudden disruptions in the school calendar, we can’t help but wish for the notoriously optimistic Snow Day Calculator to be right every once in a while - especially when every school district around us seems to call off school at the first sign of a snowstorm. We worry about a potentially extended school calendar, but those of us with our licenses are sometimes more concerned about our safety, as we are tasked with navigating the drive to school and the slippery lower and upper lots at the end of a stormy day. Given our superintendent’s track record, we don’t expect a snow day anytime soon, but the Hilltopper seniors are still holding out hope for one last snow day - do us a solid, Dr. G!