Update: Due to the weather forecast, all the schools in the Westerville City School District will be closed on Friday, Jan. 19.
Westerville North High School has experienced cold weather that hit this region earlier this week. The temperatures ranged from six to 24 degrees fahrenheit on Tuesday and Wednesday. Winter weather advisories were set in place during the majority of the two days, leading to difficulty traveling due to the conditions.
Plenty of students were surprised by the fact that the school remained open. Gemma Schmitt (2025) was one of them. “It’s a little concerning, there’s a lot of ice on the ground, so that’s kind of dangerous for the students,” Schmitt said.
The lack of a snow day or delay has caused students to reach out to Westerville City Schools Superintendent Dr. Joe Clark, who is responsible for declaring a snow day. He has been receiving plenty of emails from students throughout the district.
Even though the weather has been harsh, the Westerville City School district has a specific policy in place establishing criteria to make these cancellation and delay decisions. The policy takes into account several factors like, the conditions of the road, the amount of precipitation and the longevity of the weather event.
The main policy that has been called into question by students is that the “wind chill [has to be] at or below -15 F during key walking and waiting-for-bus times.”
Anam Ibrahim (2024) has an opinion about this policy. “I feel like they should just let us stay, if it is below 10 degrees we shouldn’t go to school,” Ibrahim said.
As the week goes on, an increasing number of students are anticipating a snow day to occur on Friday, Jan. 19. This is on account of the fact that the weather forecast predicts it to snow Friday morning.
“Hopefully tomorrow,” Ibrahim said. “If we don’t have one tomorrow, then I don’t think we will because it hasn’t been that cold this whole winter.”
