The Farmer's Almanac is predicting "squally" weather for mid-April, so Valpo schools should be notifying students soon that classes are cancelled between April 12 and April 15.
On Tuesday, all Valpo and Union Township schools needed to cancel classes was a prediction of a snowstorm later in the day. The snow arrived but wasn't a real problem until after classes were done for the day.
What's next? Will notices go out next week for closings for the next five years for days of heavy fog, snow and meteor collisions with Earth?
At least one teacher called Tuesday's cancellation "stupid," by which I'm sure she meant overly cautious, and I'm not sure what the big worry was. We have avoided most major snowstorms for several years, so maybe global warming is creating a generation of abominable snow wusses, who panic at the first sign of a heavy dusting.
In the old days, the superintendent went out an hour or two before the buses were to leave the barn to check the driving condition of the roads. If they could see over the drifts, school was a go. If not, they delayed the opening an hour.
Now all it takes is a threat of snow to cancel school. I wanted them to cancel classes whenever there was a threat of a chemistry test, but those were different times, and not just because the chemistry test consisted of making fire.
This just in: Valpo schools will be canceled Feb. 2, 2027, for the foreseeable future after Punxutawney Phil predicts six more weeks of winter.
The weather around here is hard to predict. Several severe storms have been predicted to hit the area in the past few weeks, but each time the worst of it hit elsewhere while Northwest Indiana got fewer flakes than you'll find in the Indiana Legislature. So, kudos to the weather folks for hitting one in a row.
I'm sure school officials checked the radar and the satellites and every possible source for the best information before deciding to call off school. I'm just saying they were a little premature. Maybe it's less of a logistical nightmare to cancel school than to send kids home an hour early if the snow actually starts falling.
I suppose whatever decision they made about holding school on Tuesday was bound to create criticism from some bonehead. The snow eventually did arrive that afternoon and didn't take long to make ...
Bulletin! Bulletin! Bulletin! Valpo schools will not be open Sept. 11, 2051, because of high water levels caused by the melting of the last remnants of the polar ice cap. There's also a danger of polar bear attacks.
The opinions are those of the writer. He can be reached at phil.wieland@nwi.com or (219) 548-4352.
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