BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) The forecast for the holiday weekend looked ominous as early as Monday of this week. But it took until Thursday morning at about 9:00am for a cascade of of school closings to pour into our newsroom.
See FULL list of SCHOOL CLOSINGS here.
"We've been coordinating and communicating a lot over the last few days and watching the forecast," said Michael Cornell, President of the Erie Niagara School Superintendent's Association. "It's similar to the storm in November with an ominous forecast and a decent amount of notice."
The impact of this storm may be even greater than Snowvember 2.0, due to possible widespread power outages, as well as flooding and blizzard conditions.
"A blizzard warning makes it difficult to open schools tomorrow," added Cornell. Districts planned a collaborative approach to announce the school closings at about the same time. "But every school superintendent and board of education has their own process."
Cornell said when it comes to allotted Snow Days and state aid, many districts will be using their first day on Friday.
"The Snow Days" that we took in November don't actually count toward the allotment of Snow Days. That's because Governor Kathy Hochul declared a
state of emergency for much of Western New York, from Fredonia to Henrietta," said Cornell.
Even if a school district took three snow days in November, they won't count toward the allotment of snow days.
Districts typically have three to five snow days in their calendar. It's different year to year and district to district and largely depends on the teachers contract and where Labor Day falls each year, as well as when the Regents calendar ends in June.
Cornell said districts have to have 180 learning days each year. "We will always make the decision to keep everybody safe and then we'll figure out how to accommodate what it means in terms of state aid later."
