Saturday Classes to Balance Snow Days
To account for the possibility of cancelling school due to inclement winter weather conditions, the Academy has reserved additional Saturdays for classes. The 2018-2019 academic year draft schedule already shows that the reserved Saturdays are Jan. 19, Feb. 2 and Feb. 16.
“With the shortened term, we tried to rush a bit at the end. If I had planned with more flexibility, I could have easily shortened some projects.”
According to Dean of Residential Life AJ Cosgrove, the administration has discussed including plans for snow days in the schedule since last winter term, when Principal MacFarlane called two emergency snow days in response to growing concerns about winter storms. Because there was no precedent of this practice in the school’s history, faculty members were caught off guard. “With the shortened term, we tried to rush a bit at the end,” Art Instructor Carla Collins said.
However, Collins believed that with some preparation, snow days would not be a significant issue. “If I had planned with more flexibility, I could have easily shortened some projects,” she said. In her opinion, snow days should continue when they are deemed necessary “to be inclusive and compliant with safety precautions.” If school is not cancelled, Exeter’s population of more than 200 day students would have to drive to school in heavy snow or miss classes.
However, according to Religion Instructor Russell Weatherspoon, when faculty plan out their terms, “they don’t usually have a lot of flexibility in them.” Weatherspoon thought that the problem could possibly be attributed to scheduling oversights.
Dean of Students Melissa Mischke said, “What has changed is that you look at risk management.” She mentioned that different schools in the area, including the University of New Hampshire, historically did not have snow days. “Now, considering the traffic and the risk, I mean people can die,” she said.
Learning Specialist and Coordinator of Academic Support Jonathan Nydick supported the idea of reserving Saturday classes in case there is a snow day. He noted that this is a prevalent model at other schools, including the one he worked at prior to coming to Exeter, where an excessive number of snow days would result in Saturday classes.
Nydick does worry, however, that more Saturday classes would be a burden for students having to travel off campus for sports. “I’m not a big proponent of quantity over quality,” he said.
Many faculty members prioritize the number of times a class meets per term. “If most faculty members feel like it’s necessary to reserve a few Saturdays to make up that time then I’d be in support of it, but personally depending on how many snow days you have it’s a good margin to plan for one to two days off,” Collins said. “I don’t feel like there need to be reserve Saturday classes.”
Mischke said about utilizing Saturday classes in case of snow days, “Ultimately, it’s the principal’s decision.”
Lower Anjali Gupta anticipates many of her peers complaining about Saturday classes. Gupta thinks that the Academy could implement an alternative to having extra Saturday classes that would be more well-received by the students. “Honestly, I’d be fine with a similar system to what happened at my old public school where they added on more days at the end of the school year,” she said.
Other students disagree with the proposal. “I gag at the thought of having Saturday classes as ‘repentance’ for snow days,” upper Hannah Pak said. Pak, who travels to Boston frequently to take music lessons, said that this new policy would get in the way of her trumpet lessons. “If I had a big recital or audition coming up, I wouldn’t be able to go and get a lesson,” she said.
According to lower Rose Coviello, this policy would affect the academic performance of those involved in sports—especially since Saturdays are usually when there are more away games. “Last Saturday for example, we had to leave at 9:30 in the morning for a water polo game. [With this new policy,] that would cause me to miss almost half of my classes on Saturday and would make me fall behind,” Coviello said.
Lower Keaghan Tierney expressed her frustration with the tentative policy. “I think this new policy is stupid and absolutely ridiculous. We don’t have a lot of holidays off, and we don’t have a lot of religious days off either,” Tierney said. “It’s stupid that they would want to take away our Saturdays.”
Upper Miranda Derossi, however, said that snow days “are really fun and a mental health break,” and that she would not mind the additional Saturday classes. Derossi said, “I think that it’s a good idea because we do have a required number of days that we have to be in school.”