School canceled 'due to good weather'

BELLINGHAM, Wash., March 25 (UPI) -- The principal of a Washington state private school called off classes for a "Sun Day" declared "due to good weather."

Principal Bob Sampson of Bellingham Christian School sent e-mails to parents Tuesday night and posted a message on the school's Web site declaring a spontaneous day off Wednesday to enjoy the sunny spring weather, Seattlepi.com reported Thursday.

"Good morning students
, parents and staff. Yes, It's a Sun Day! Wahooo," Sampson wrote on the Web site. "That's right, school is CANCELED today due to good weather! Enjoy!"

Sampson said the school had enough leftover snow days to compensate for the "Sun Day" and precedent was set for the nice day off during a similar closing three or four years ago. He said the school board requires only that the temperature be at least 63 degrees with clear skies for such a closing.

The principal said he accommodated parents who could not afford to have their children at home Wednesday by providing day care at the school. He said five of the school's 183 students arrived to play the day away at school.

www.upi.com...


I give this school a big thumbs up. More schools need to be like this, and if there are snow days left, why don't they use them to end school early?

Finally schools have done something good!

Education be damned, lol.

Back in the day my school had pre-scheduled days off in the spring that were designated as weather days. So if we missed a day or two because of a hurricane or winter storm it could be made up in the spring. It would have been nice though to have those days moved to the nice ones, like they did here, so I didn't have to show the initiative and make my own 'good weather days'.

Great idea. Well, as long as it is not too often. I remember how it sucked to go to school on beautiful day. Shame that probability of "work canceled due to good weather" is leaning to zero.

haha good on the guy for letting the kids have a day off. wish our bosses were as kind. mine dont understand how difficult it is to get to work in the snow on a motorbike lol

[edit on 27-3-2010 by Gimpychaos]

This is awesome! Why couldnt of my high school been like this. We rarely even had snow days. So for them to use a day left over is pretty cool.

More schools should start doing this, they should just be able to give one or two random days off for really good whether, why not!

this Prince able will go down in history the high school kids going there will be talking about him in a 1000 years

When kids respect their school, they will learn better.

Things like this gain respect. Good thinking.

An additional note to put this in context is that this is Bellingnham. My grandmother was from there and it rains there more than Seattle. It rains and rains and rains. So to cancel school for kids and teachers to be able to enjoy some of the rare beautiful and sunny says up there will make everyone happier (and healthier) in the long run.

"the rainy season can last as long as eight months or more, it is usually about six months long" Wikapedia.

Where I live, schools end up being closed about 10 or 12 days a winter season. Because the weather can become severe in a very short time, the school boards will often shut down based on a forecast of freezing rain because of the road conditions. Often times the forecast will fall short and the weather clears and the school board has pie on their face but better safe than sorry when it comes to road conditions.

Good for him although it probably does cause some parents headaches when they have to make arrangements. In the war on obesity I have always found it hypocritical for schools to be the front in saying "Get outside and play" while keeping kids locked inside for 8 hours.

What a wonderful thing to do!

Growing up in England in the 70s and 80s I never had a day off from school due to bad weather ..... but where the weather is different I thnk this is a nice gesture and a pleasant change from the usual case of banning things for H&S reasons

Of course, parents may have a very different view: being forced to take time off work "because the weather is good" in order to care for their kids who'd otherwise be at school ..... Indeed I can understand them being pretty p*ssed off!