Superintendent Crebase shares how she decides to cancel school 

By Gabriella Rinehart
Student Writer

All kids know the feeling of sitting in front of the TV, on a snowy day, looking for your school to scroll by at the bottom of the screen on your local news station, or waiting to get that magical call letting you know school was canceled. If you are like me, you may have wondered, how are these snow days called? 

As a senior at Hopedale High School, I had the privilege to interview the school’s superintendent, Mrs. Crebase, to learn about her decision process. She explained there are several aspects to her decision, by using different weather tracking systems to monitor the storm starting a week in advance and the impact on Hopedale and neighboring towns. 

Another important factor includes ensuring roads, parking lots, sidewalks (even the school’s emergency exits) are clear. Mrs. Crebase even has a text thread with 12 surrounding superintendents providing information on their towns. This process was much more complex than I thought it would be. 

When students successfully manifest a snow day, the Superintendent uses a program called Thrill Share to provide the good news. This program sends out a text, email and voicemail (in the student's home language) and informs the local news. She aims to send out the alert after 6 a.m., but if the decision is made earlier, she will inform the news stations so any early risers can see it. 

So maybe it is worth getting up early to watch the town scroll by on the TV.