Click here to listen to this week’s JAM – Bay Area Snow Days.
This morning, Tuesday, January 10, as I dragged myself out of bed around 5:45 am, it took a moment for me to realize what was happening. No power. After a few quick text exchanges with a couple other people – and a quick look at the PG&E outage map to confirm that our Los Gatos campus had no power – I turned on my hotspot and sent out a notification to the community that school would be closed for the day. A little bit later my 8th grader wandered downstairs in the dark, looking a bit confused. “No power, school’s canceled for the day.” A smile crossed her face and she ran back upstairs to crawl back into bed.
I imagine that different children had different reactions to the news, especially depending on their age. While older children likely were eager for at least a bit more sleep, younger children very well may have been disappointed that they had to miss a day at school. It struck me that this stormy no power day – the Bay Area’s closest thing to a Snow Day – doesn’t really offer the same type of joyful opportunity that a snow day did for me growing up. I was raised in Portland, Oregon, where it didn’t snow often but when it did it almost always led to school closures. I would go to bed the night before knowing that there was a possibility that it would snow that night and school might be canceled. Then, early in the morning, we would start listening to the radio and listen to the list of school closures. My sister and I would cheer when the announcer would read off, “Portland Public Schools”. The day would then unfold magically in front of us, we’d grab whatever type of sled we had, throw on the warmest jacket we could find, and rush into the untrampled snow in front of our house. They were some of my favorite days, as they were days of unexpected freedom, joy and beauty.
I know several school leaders who have capitalized on the joy of a snow day by creating hilarious videos announcing school closures. A Head of School at Moses Brown School in Rhode Island went viral in 2015 with a hilarious rendition of the Frozen song “Let it Snow,” – “School is closed, school is closed,” while another Head of School and Associate Head of School in Durham, North Carolina got lots of attention for a Vanilla Ice parody, “School is closed because there’s ice, ice baby.” Both videos (which you can link to in the notes to this episode) are wonderful examples of the playful spirit and joy that a snow day brings out even for school leaders.
Living in the Bay Area, I have always missed those snow days. Yet as I shared my matter of fact announcement this morning to families, it was clear to me that Bay Area snow days simply don’t match up with those experiences. For many families today was dark and stormy, and for some families I know that conditions were downright dangerous. I definitely was not going to use the moment for humor. And, as I thought back over the last few years, other school closure days were the result of fires or pandemics, neither of which created any type of joy.
Apparently, while the Bay Area remains one of the best places to live in the world, Bay Area Snow Days are not on the list of reasons. Fortunately, I’ve just learned that power is back on at Hillbrook. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone at school.