'Snow Day' Decision Explained By Wallingford Superintendent Menzo

WALLINGFORD, CT — After Wallingford had its first “snow day” with distance learning, Superintendent Salvatore Menzo said officials will review how the day went and share the information with the Board of Education at Monday’s meeting.

The board had a special meeting Wednesday morning and approved having snow days be distance learning days for students. The town’s middle schools and high schools are already operating remotely until Jan. 19.

Many in the community, and in towns across the state with similar policies, were upset about students not being able to have a traditional snow day with no school. While others saw a benefit in not having to make up the day at the end of the school year.

Menzo, who said he received feedback on both sides, sent a message to parents Thursday explaining everything that went into making the decision. Read the full message below:

I am not sure if I am alone on this, but I am hopeful this was the only snow event of the season. I know I have shared before that when I was growing up, I always wanted to be the person who was able to call snow days. Over my 17 years as a superintendent across two districts, I have realized that I wish I could have provided my younger self with some advice on that desire. In the past, the criticism was over whether or not the weather was bad enough to have no school because no one wanted to get out late in June with no air conditioning in our schools. There was also negative feedback about snow days because graduation would never be set and that was difficult for students and families. Staff always expressed the desire to have as much of a summer as possible by getting out as early as possible. Now, with the ability to avoid such issues, we are faced with the new criticism.

With that said, I really do appreciate the feedback that I have received on both sides of the decision. Many were not in support of distance learning today, while others were pleased that the school year would not be extended in the hopes that a vaccine would allow for family travel this summer. In the end, the decision was not made to discard student and staff needs and feelings.

As I shared at the Board of Education meeting yesterday, we met with the Teachers Union leadership to review how we would handle snow days. As a Central Office team, the only requirement we had, if the days would be virtual, was that there was equity for students and staff and that it would be a schedule that we could be proud to share with the State Department of Education if asked to do so.

The Union agreed and schedules were drafted and shared with those representatives for approval. Key to the agreed upon snow day schedule was the delay in starting the day. Based on feedback from staff, there was a concern that there may be a need for time to prepare for their families on a snow day. That is one reason why all schedules were aligned.

The other reason for this alignment was to allow as many service providers (special education, intervention, English Learner, etc.) were able to meet the needs of students on their caseloads. If we did not provide voluntary distance learning teachers time for planning their day with their families and started them at the regular time, but did provide the planning time for in-person teachers, there would be significant disruption to the ability of staff to provide special services to students.

While this is not a perfect model and there still may be the need for staff to adjust their schedules like they normally do due to late arrivals and early dismissals, we believe the common schedule provides equity and also addresses the social and emotional needs of our staff and families in the morning of a virtual learning snow day.

In the end, we will review how today went as a district and share that information with the Board of Education at the meeting Monday night. Again, the decision was not made in a vacuum or at the expense of the feelings of anyone as much as that may seem or as difficult as that may be to accept. As I have stated before, none of us have a goal of waking up and devising plans to cause challenges or stress for students, staff or families. However, we do have the responsibility to make decisions based on emotional needs, datas, and contractual obligations.