Students of all ages are celebrating due to the numerous snow days occurring lately in Ohio.

Multiple schools in Ohio have already surpassed the official five calamity day limit. Reporter Mark Kovac of the Twinsburg Bulletin reported that Ohio’s State Governor John Kasich has asked state lawmakers for a one school year increase in calamity days due to snow and multiple days of sub-zero weather.

The U.S. Edition of CNN has listed why schools are not fond of snow days, including bad forecasting, costly closures, student activity during, etc. It is hard to refocus when returning to school. Snow days take the responsibility out of the day and create more stress in the long run as students procrastinate with work. Snow days were also the reason why The Lantern was forced to forsake the January edition.

Other people have different opinions on the effects of snow days.  A new study by Harvard Kennedy School Assistant Professor Joshua Goodman stated that it is deficient when schools stay open in bad conditions rather than close, because parents will occasionally keep students home, regardless of school policy. A closure would require a teacher to catch up the entire class with a given additional day, an easier task than catching up a handful of students whose parents forbade them from going to school on a day that should have been or could have been called off.

The staff and students use snow days to catch up on sleep and unwind, as well as possibly study more for tests. It functions almost as a mental break. Snow days can help especially if homework is not completely finished. Snow days are also a good thing because they are a surprise.

So, are snow days a good thing, especially when there are so many?

Trying to make up snow days can also be somewhat difficult. At Revere High School, the snow days of second trimester are added onto the end of the third trimester, not affecting students at the current time when the make-up days are most needed. This in turn does not do anything to provide for lost time in the second trimester, and nothing extremely major ends up being completed on the extra days.

It is very efficient and important for school districts to continue to use snow days for saftey reasons. It is possible, however, that snow days can cause multiple dilemmas economically, and they can also affect the daily routine of students. Thus, it is very important that school districts use their snow days wisely, and that students work hard to stay on track academically, even on those unexpected days off.