Westford Public Schools were closed on Monday, Jan. 26 and had a two-hour delay on Tuesday, Jan. 27. The schools were closed on Monday due to heavy snowfall on Sunday, and there was a two-hour delay on Tuesday to allow the maintenance and custodial crews to finish cleaning up the snow.
According to the National Weather Service in Boston/Norton, 15.5 inches of snow was recorded on the ground in Westford at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, though light and moderate snow continued until the evening. Superintendent Dr. Christopher Chew announced Monday’s cancellation of school at around 11 a.m. on Sunday morning, and notified residents about Tuesday’s two-hour delay at around 7:40 p.m. on Monday evening.
The cancellation of school on Monday was expected and undeniably necessary, but the two-hour delay on Tuesday was not the right call, as the road conditions were still too unsafe to drive in. It is commendable that Chew pushed back the normal school start time on Tuesday to allow the maintenance and custodial crews to finish clearing school grounds; however, Tuesday should have been a full cancellation of school to maintain the safety of the students, faculty members, and parents.
With a two-hour delay already in place, it would not have been a huge ask to extend the delayed opening to a full-day cancellation, especially when Westford Academy students already had a shorter day of school due to midterm exams. Additionally, multiple nearby school districts cancelled school on Tuesday, including Acton-Boxborough Regional Schools and Tyngsborough Public Schools, so why couldn’t Westford have done the same?
It is unreasonable to expect the winter storm cleanup crews to restore the roads to completely safe conditions in 24 hours. The main roads may have been plowed, but they were still far from perfect, and it would have made sense to give the crews more time ensure that the roads are safe enough for people to drive on.
According to a poll conducted on the Ghostwriter’s Instagram, more than 249 students’ commutes were negatively affected, and at least 243 students felt anxious about their ability to get home safely.
What made the conditions worse was that the roads were very narrow, increasing the possibility for drivers to crash into snowbanks after skidding off the road. It was also very difficult to see incoming cars when making right and left turns due to the height of the snowbanks. It’s important to err on the side of safety, and cancelling school for no reason is better than putting drivers through risky road conditions and potential car accidents.
In addition, it was very difficult for student drivers at Westford Academy to locate their parking spots due to the amount of snow still on the ground. It would have been beneficial to allow the Westford Academy maintenance and custodial crews more time to ensure that everyone could find their spots safely.
With that being said, there were also positive aspects of the two-hour delay decision, one example being the timing of the decision. Rather than having parents and faculty members in the school district receive a call at 5 a.m. as they typically do with two-hour delays, Chew gave enough notice for parents and students to adjust their schedules accordingly.
The snow day did come at the perfect time, as it provided Westford Academy students, who were scheduled to take midterm exams from Jan. 22 to Jan. 27, an extra day to study for their three remaining exams. Due to the snow day, E and F block exams were moved to Tuesday, Jan. 27, while the G block exam shifted to take place on Wednesday, Jan. 28.
One benefit of not having a snow day on Tuesday was that Westford Academy students were able to have midterms on that day, instead of having to push back the midterm schedule another day. If Chew had decided to cancel school on Tuesday, it would have been more difficult to find time for the students who needed to take makeup exams to do so. It would have required students to keep studying and stay up-to-date on their test material for an additional day to make sure they didn’t forget anything before midterms. Because school was not cancelled on Tuesday, students still have the opportunity to make up any missed exams on Wednesday; however, there will no longer be a final day of Semester 1 after midterms, where every class meets, as originally planned.
This does not come as a disappointment, as Westford Academy students are already accustomed to not being able to meet in their semester-long classes after midterm exams.
The snow day also gave students and faculty the opportunity to celebrate the Patriots’ AFC Championship win over the Broncos on Sunday, a perk that was highlighted in Chew’s email. Chew’s early cancellation of school calls back to what seemed like a Westford tradition: when former superintendent Bill Olsen used to call snow days on Sundays before big Patriots games and mention the game as a reason to call it early. The combination of the biggest snowfall in Boston since Jan. 2022 and the Patriots’ return to the Super Bowl after seven years feels like Massachusetts is returning to its roots.
Not only did Chew make the snow day email and phone call more jolly by mentioning the Patriots’ game, but he also put in the effort to include some background music before his announcement of the snow day, adding another layer of joy to learning about the day off.
Ultimately, The Ghostwriter would give Chew a B- for his calls. Tuesday should have been a snow day rather than a two-hour delay due to the unsafe road conditions, but Chew made the right decision by cancelling school on Monday. In addition, by announcing both the snow day and the two-hour delay early, he gave students, parents, and faculty members enough notice to adjust their schedules, and he prevented any unnecessarily early wakeups.
