Students React to Snow Days
During the first weeks in February, Wisconsin experienced heavy, blizzard-like weather. Due to the freezing temperatures seen from the weather, some Wisconsities have been left without utilities like water, heat, and electricity. In response, Governor Tony Evers declared an Energy Emergency for a third time on February 22nd. The first started on December 22nd, 2022, and ended on January 1st, 2023, while the second started on January 6th and ended on February 6th. The current Energy Emergency will end on March 24th.
On February 16th and February 22nd, Arrowhead students encountered two snow days.
Many areas gathered between 7 and 14 inches of snow and temperatures dropped to -25 degrees, states Wisconsin Emergency Management. Hartland got a mix of snow and raining ice.
Arrowhead’s superintendent Laura Myrah chooses to call off days. They gather information from “local and national weather services, neighboring school districts and local resources such as its bus company (…) the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, law enforcement and other sources,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Senior Kate Sprinkman said, “I was in DC during Wednesday’s snowstorm and all we got was rain. I felt great about everyone else being off because I felt less stressed.”
Senior Sophia Markowski said, “I caught up on sleep during the snow day.”
Arrowhead has an allocated one day of snow days available before students have to come in and make it up. As of now, Arrowhead has had three snow days during the 2022-2023 school year, meaning there will be two days students have to make up, also according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. These days will be April 10th and May 26th.
Many students have stated they wished for virtual learning days instead, including Sprinkman, who said, “I don’t want to come in to make it up on a day off when I could just do it at home.”
Arrowhead’s School Board states that in-person learning is more effective and beneficial than virtual learning, however, if there are more than three non-covered snow days students will do virtual learning.
Including Arrowhead, many schools in Wisconsin closed, including Milwaukee Public Schools. Furthermore, many businesses closed early or completely between the 22nd and 23rd of February, including banks and libraries.
The longest-ever snowstorm Wisconsin experienced was in January of 1947, adding up to three days. There were up to 27 inches of snow which is a 17-inch difference from what the average was over the past week, around 10 inches.
“I didn’t get too bad snow but the ice rain was what I was most concerned about,” senior Olivia Schmidt said.
There was a flood warning on February 28th for all of Southern Wisconsin due to heavy rains and melting snow.
Senior Lydia Le Clair said, “I’m worried about another snow day. People are suspecting we’ll have one Friday [March 3rd] and that means we’ll have to do virtual learning.”
Trinity Luce Comeu, a senior, said, “I’ll be gone Thursday [March 2nd] and Friday [March 3rd] so if we have a snow day I’ll have to work virtually from my hotel room.”
As of the 1st of March, there is a 50% chance of snow on March 3rd, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. with temperatures being around 25 degrees Fahrenheit. Weather25 anticipates there will be more snow on subsequent days, like the 9th, 12th, 13th, and 14th totaling around 4.5 inches of snow. In the event these days will result in snow days, all of them will be virtual learning.
