One of the few perks that comes with living in a city like Chardon, Ohio is having snow. You may think to yourself, “Self, I hate snow and everything having to do with snow!” and in most cases this is true. However, there is a small spark in the cold darkness that we call snow. This is a thing that we as Chardon students know very well (although sometimes it might not seem well enough). These special mini holidays are called snow days! Contrary to popular belief, snow days are not just because of too much snow. Snow days, or officially known as calamity days, are days of the school year which are cancelled due to weather or other things which could cause problems, such as no heat or electricity. Most of the time, we have calamity days for snow related weather issues, such as icy roads, sidewalks and all around too much snow. Snow days are a necessity for living in the snow belt, and in the words of junior Kelly Fisher, “If it’s going to snow, I need snow days.”

            Many students at Chardon High School do not think we get enough snow days in the year. Each year we get five calamity days, and if we use them all and then have to take an extra day off of school, we will have to make it up at the end of the year. Sophomore Autaum Lee said, “I know that we do not get enough snow days. If we have a set number of snow days we should use them all while it’s snowing!” The problem with this is that if we do not save our calamity days wisely, if we ever need one when we run out, we will have to make up the day at the end of the year. That is during summer time, and it will cut into summer break. Freshman Phillip Herbruck added, “Snow days are good days to have, but I don’t like it when we use them all, because there is a chance that we will have to come during summer vacation, and I don’t like taking days off of my break.”

            One option that might help everyone is just adding more snow days to the amount we can have. Junior Marcus Znidarsic said, “If we had more snow days in the year, we would not have to worry about taking too many off. It would be easier for the students and the faculty.” The only problem with this is that there are already state laws about calamity days. The state of Ohio gives five calamity days to each school. As it turns out, most schools do not use all of their calamity days. The conflict is between how schools do not use them during the school year and schools that actually use them don’t get enough. There are many options of what we could do for these mini vacations, but right now they work the way they are intended.