This winter, Loudoun County has had an extreme increase of snow days compared to previous years. It has caused class schedules to be off-balance and extracurricular activities to be postponed.
Loudoun County has had roughly a full school week off from snow days, with possibly more to come. There have also been many two-hour-delays, as well as a new three-hour-shortened day, featuring 30 minute classes and a full two hour lunch block. LCPS is allowed only 15 snow days per year, so they are finding new ways to avoid using them.
“I was happy with the snow days [because] I got to sleep in and play games at home,” senior Brady St. Onge said. “I didn’t like the shortened day because I feel like we should’ve just stayed home at that point.”
To the relief of many students and staff, LCPS has stated that they will not be having make-up days at the end of the year. This means that the days of school that we missed due to the snow will simply take away from the total amount of school days this school year, and we will continue with the originally planned schedule.
“As a senior, I’m really glad they’re not adding any days at the end of the school year,” St. Onge said. “It would have been unnecessary and I didn’t want to have a late graduation.”
However, students have been complaining about the days off because of less time to complete course work. This especially affects students taking rigorous classes, having less class time to complete assignments and learn material.
“I was kind of mad about the snow days because I couldn’t do some stuff in my classes that I wanted,” senior Jason Ba said. “I had a test I had to make-up in Science [class] and I had to wait a long time to do that.”
Due to the snow outside and on turf fields, spring sports like soccer, lacrosse, and outdoor track have had their pre-season training paused multiple times. This has caused a disruption in preparation for their upcoming seasons, leaving athletes feeling underprepared for their upcoming games.
“Taking these breaks from soccer has been annoying because the season is about to start and the team hasn’t trained together much,” junior Arash Ahmadi said. “I’m just waiting until all the snow stops so we can go back to playing regularly.”
The snow days have also affected previously in-season sports like indoor track and field. Runners and jumpers preparing for district and regional meets also had to take a break from practices. However, many of these athletes have found alternative ways to work out and stay in shape
“I would just do some explosive drills at home,” junior Nick Nadanyi said. “I was just trying to maintain my explosiveness for the sprints.”
This harsh winter storms have now slowed down. Snowfall is gone, and while some were hopeful of more days off, others are glad that school time and school activities have reconvened.
“I was happy we got some time off from school to chill at home,” Ahamdi said. “But I’m happy to be back at school now and sports have started back up.”
