What Makes A Snow Day?

New Yorkers woke up to almost 6 inches of snow on Thursday the 13th. After strong blizzards, gusty winds, and winter storm warnings, The New School cancelled classes after noon. A community-wide alert email was sent out at 10:30 a.m. notifying students, professors, and New School staff that afternoon classes would be cancelled and buildings would close at 3 p.m.

The Free Press spoke with The New School’s Chief Operating Officer, Tokumbo Shobowale, about the decision-making process for shutting down the university.

“The basic policy, which has been in place for a number of years, is that we follow the New York City Department of Education,” Shobowale explained.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s decision to keep New York City Public Schools open last Thursday sparked intense criticism from the head of the teachers union and parents. ABC Eyewitness News reported that some parents were airing their grievances online with comments such as de Blasio “made a horrible, terrible mistake, and needs to own up.”

The New School doesn’t have its own weathermen on hand and follows the expert information that is provided by the Department of Education when deciding whether to make the call to cancel classes or brave the storm.

“The Department of Education has access to the most sophisticated, up-to-date information on weather issues,” Shobowale said. “They have a whole staff of people who are monitoring weather, who have a direct connection to meteorologists.”

Shobowale added that The New School’s decision to suspend class at noon, despite New York City public schools remaining open all of Thursday, was “uncharacteristic” and based on a number of factors.

“Conditions were getting worse and there was news about the rain turning to sleet and freezing ice, which could really complicate the evening commute,” he said. “We want people to get home safely after leaving school and wanted people to do that during daylight hours and before transit had been reduced.”

Another factor taken into account when declaring a snow day is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s operations since most students, faculty and staff, rely on public transportation to get to school, Shobowale added. Last Thursday, the MTA issued several Winter Weather alerts. Metro-North trains were running at a reduced service with anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour delays. Similarly, most subways were delayed 10-15 minutes and some were not even running.

Shobowale went on to say that the last factor was school attendance. Fewer students than normal had classes on campus, thus fewer people had their days disrupted by early dismissal.