No traditional snow days will occur this 2025-2026 school year. Instead, students will participate in school virtually. This decision was announced on November 10 on lmsd.org. The article detailed that the “virtual instruction day” will include both “synchronous and asynchronous” learning.
Teachers and students had various reactions to this change, with most people agreeing that they would miss snow days. When academic seminar teacher Katlin McKeon was asked about teaching virtually on snow days, she said “I don’t like it. I think you guys should experience snow days, at least build in one or two days, and then we can have a virtual one.” This idea that at least one day should be free before resorting to virtual education was a common thread throughout the opinions of multiple students and teachers. English teacher Dr. Saher Masoodi said, “I like that that option is there, but I was hoping the first snow day would be the free snow day [without] virtual instruction. This is a city where it doesn’t snow frequently. Having a day of fun in the snow is better than sitting in a virtual classroom.”
Many students felt as if they were missing out on an important staple of wintertime. Lila Apple ’27 mentioned that she felt “sad because snow days are the most exciting part of winter.” Julia Leonard ’27 said, “I think they should still give us our snow days because that’s something we’ve had, and all the classes before us have had.” Gavin Schulze ’27 felt that “snow days shouldn’t live on only through memory.” Ben Yovel ’27 said, “I love my snow days. I feel like snow days are an opportunity to hang out with your friends and be a kid, almost. Virtual days don’t do that.” Similarly, Brigid San Chirico ’26 remarked that “snow days are causing us to lose out on such a formative childhood Pennsylvania memory.”
Other students mentioned that because LM is not a particularly snowy region, at least one snow day would provide some excitement. Briana Klock ’27 said, “I think we should be allowed to have a day off when it snows, especially because it doesn’t snow as much. The snow should be special because in the future, who knows if it will snow again?” Gili Kamienchick ’27 also highlighted the issue of global warming. She said, “I feel like snow days are a part of growing up and having that experience with snow, especially with global warming happening.” Most students felt that virtual days would take away from this beloved wintertime tradition.
But why were snow days turned into virtual days? According to Superintendent Ranelli, “No snow days were built into the Board-approved calendar for the 2025-2026 school year. This calendar complies with state mandates for educational time as well as maintaining days off for holidays as they have been traditionally observed in LMSD.” When asked if this issue had any relation to the district’s previous decision to cut all half days, Dr. Ranelli clarified that “No, the elimination of half-days for professional development saves money from the transportation budget and maximizes staff professional development time.” Moreover, when asked if state requirements on instructional days impacted the choice to create virtual snow days, he explained that “The Pennsylvania Department of Education mandates instructional time for public schools. These mandates must be met to preserve state funding.” In short, the decision to move snow days to virtual days was one made by the school board and is unrelated to LM’s recent decision to eliminate half days. This decision is also impacted by the fact that LMSD must meet a mandated amount of instructional school time.
Overall, the elimination of traditional snow days in favor of virtual days is a decision that multiple students and teachers disagree with. Although removing traditional snow days from this year’s calendar seems to be an unpopular choice, it was made to comply with state mandates for instructional time while preserving off days for holidays.
