Local

Snowzilla bites off a week of classes

Katie Scott | Catholic Herald

Bishop Ireton High School in Alexandria is blanketed in white following Snowzilla. Schools canceled classes for at least a week to ensure student and teacher safety and to dig out parking lots.

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A snow plow cut a path into deep snow in front of Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington after the January blizzard.

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Beau Hill, a member of the maintenance staff at Paul VI Catholic High School, removes snow in front of the Fairfax school following the Jan. 22-23 blizzard that brought as much as three feet of snow to the region and shut down many diocesan schools for more than a week.

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While local governments scrambled to dig out streets and
sidewalks from the massive Jan. 22-23 East Coast snowstorm,
students celebrated the storm dubbed “Snowzilla” by swapping
classes for snowballs, movies and hot cocoa.

Most diocesan schools were closed the entire week following
the blizzard, which brought as much as three feet of snow to
the region. Some schools were closed the Thursday prior after
a small storm during rush hour Wednesday evening crippled
roadways and left icy patches. Most closed Friday in
anticipation of Snowzilla.

“Of course we want students to be in classes, but our No. 1
priority is to keep kids safe,” said Sister Karl Ann Homberg,
assistant superintendent of schools. Even later in the week,
as plows moved from main streets to neighborhood roads,
conditions were variable across the diocese.

“Things can look fine outside your window, but students and
teachers come from various pockets, and it doesn’t always
look like what you’re seeing in the front of your house,” she
said.

Diocesan schools typically follow their local school
districts’ decisions regarding closures and delays. Three
diocesan high schools – Bishop Ireton in Alexandria, Bishop
O’Connell in Arlington and Paul VI Catholic in Fairfax –
follow Fairfax County Schools’ lead; Saint John Paul the
Great Catholic High School in Dumfries follows Prince William
County Schools.

At this point, no schools will need to add additional hours
of instruction to make up for those lost due to the storm,
said Sister Bernadette McManigal, superintendent of schools.
Virginia law mandates 990 hours of instruction time per
academic year, but the diocese easily fulfills the minimum by
requiring 1,038. Diocesan schools also have three extra days
built into the calendar to be used for emergencies.

Three of the four high schools completed first-semester exams
before the storm. Exams at O’Connell were scheduled for the
week after Snowzilla and had to be canceled.

“The decision was not made lightly,” said Sister Catherine
Hill, O’Connell dean of academics, about the cancellation.
She said a number of factors went into the decision,
including the desire to “offer students direct instruction
rather than using time for assessment” and to ensure seniors’
January transcripts were sent on time to colleges. Students
wishing to boost their grades could opt to take the test at a
later date.

A number of school-related events were postponed, including a
science fair at St. Leo the Great School in Fairfax. And with
Catholic Schools Week Feb. 1-5, planning related celebrations
“was a bit more difficult,” said Sister Bernadette.

But snowstorms are “an act of God,” she said, “and they call
for flexibility.”

Structurally, nearly all the schools weathered the storm
well, save St. Timothy School in Chantilly, where
snow caused part of the roof above the music room to
collapse.

One of the biggest challenges for schools is clearing the
parking lots, said Sister Bernadette. Each school is
responsible for snow removal, with schools and parishes
factoring the expense into their budget.

Highs in the upper 50s and melting snow greeted students as
they returned to school Feb. 1. Although Fairfax, Loudoun and
Fauquier counties had a two-hour delay, cabin-fever-filled
students filed into all diocesan classrooms after as many as
11 days away.

At Paul VI, students were a bit louder than usual, said Tom
Opfer, vice principal and dean of academics. “There is a lot
of energy in the hallways,” he laughed. “It’s great.”

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