Friday Gift-Giving

The feel of winter will return today after a spring-like Tuesday. A cold front is moving through this morning, which could trigger a few snow showers. A dusting is possible, especially in South County before or during the morning commute.

There is good news to report. The GSD Staff has its full attention on a developing situation on Friday. Most of the models, especially the Euro, are forecasting a snowy Friday, with possible moderate snow during the day. We're seeing predictions for as low as 1" and as high as 5" for Friday. As of now, it looks like the northern half of Berkshire County will receive the bulk of the snow, with lesser amounts and even some freezing rain and sleet mixing in in the southern half.

The key, as always, will be the timing. Again, that looks good with meteorologists we trust telling us the morning commute will be affected.

So, our prevailing wisdom is that this storm is going to come down to the size of the heart of your Superintendent. A normal storm has three important factors, all of which are equally important: the timing of the storm, the amount of snow, and state of mind of the Superintendent. Because Friday is the last day before a long vacation, the formula skews toward the Superintendent's state of mind and what kind of mood he or she is in.

A Superintendent in a generous, gift-giving spirit could easily call in a snow day because of the messy conditions forecasted for the commute and the ride home and because almost all of us haven't had any snow days yet. Enjoy your extended vacation, they'll say, as they rack up a few "I'm-a-good- person" points for themselves.

A more Grinch-like Supertindent will ask students to suck it up and get to school because the roads will be snow-covered but not that bad. This Superintendent is still scarred from last year's snow day bonanza (six or seven days off in most cases). If your Superintendent has been in his or her position for a long time and/or has just signed a contract extension, have fun at school.

This all presumes the storm is going to do what we think it's going to do, which is bring us periods of moderate snow during the first half of the day on Friday.

If students were smart, and there are many of you out there, you would start a letter writing campaign immediately. You would explain to your Superintendent how nice you and your classmates have been, what good deeds you've done around the school, and ask very nicely (please, pretty please, and all that) for the one thing you want this holiday season. (One piece of advice with this strategy: the Superintendent will likely check with the Assistant Principal to see if you're on the naughty or nice list, so you may want to coordinate with your classmates who exactly sends letters in. You don't want things to backfire.)

There will be much more to come on this developing storm in the next 36 hours.