The city called just three snow days in the 2000s. So far this decade, New York City has closed its schools four times due to snow.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. - Parents and students know this all too well -- the city rarely shuts down the public school system because of snowfall.
Nevertheless, snow days do happen in New York City -- and the city has called more of them in the past four years than it did throughout the 2000s.
Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned that Monday's coming blizzard "could be the biggest snowstorm in the history of this city." School will remain open on Monday, but on Tuesday, he said, the schools will "likely" be closed, with the final decision coming sometime Monday.
Keeping the schools open during snowstorm conditions often courts controversy. Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina was widely mocked for declaring Feb. 13, 2014 "a beautiful day" despite the sloppy winter weather; and on Feb. 11, 2010, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg took heat for opening the schools despite a 17-inch accumulation on Staten Island.
The city closed its public schools just three times in the 2000s.
On March 5, 2001, the city preemptively closed its schools for a hyped-up storm that, ultimately, brought between 2 and 3.5 inches of accumulation to the borough over two days.
An Advance article from March 7 mused, "That's not even enough to build a decent snowman in Clove Lakes Park, although there were certainly enough kids who stayed home from school yesterday to try." (The schools had re-opened on March 6.)
On Jan. 28, 2004, a snowstorm brought 7.5 inches of accumulation to Staten Island's streets. After upstate Onondaga County got clubbed with 121 inches of snow, a transportation official there took a gentle swipe at the city's reaction:
"There's kind of a joke here upstate: We hear that you people get 10 inches of snow and the city shuts down ... Because we're aware of it up here, because we're used to it, because we have the equipment to deal with it, 10 inches of snow, generally, doesn't slow anything down."
On March 2, 2009, Bloomberg canceled classes, but he didn't make the call to do so until 5:40 a.m. That drew anger from parents left scrambling to make alternative plans during the storm, which dumped 10 inches on the city.
Bloomberg defended the decision at a press conference, telling reporters: "If you got up this morning, looked outside and it didn't come to you right away, the thought that, gee, I wonder if school will be closed today, and you didn't know enough to call 311, I'd suggest another day in school is probably a good idea."
SNOW DAYS BECOME MORE FREQUENT
So far this decade, the city has already called for four snow days, two of which took place in February 2010, when the Island was socked with a series of winter wallops.
First, Bloomberg canceled classes on Feb. 10 before a single flake of snow had hit the ground. The snow kept falling, though, and the schools re-opened on Feb. 11, even though Staten Island had to dig out from under 17 inches.
Then, on Feb. 26, the mayor made another 5 a.m. decision to close the schools, as a powerhouse of a blizzard brought 15 inches down on the Island.
Incidentally, the worst storm of 2010 -- the one where Bloomberg famously suggested that snowed-in city residents catch a Broadway show -- took place on Dec. 26, when school was in winter recess.
Bloomberg closed the schools one more time during his tenure as mayor -- on Jan. 27, 2011. The decision meant that nearly 100,000 Regents exams had to be thrown in the trash, and the students would have to wait until June for their next opportunity to take the tests.
Students scheduled to take the exams this week could face a similar dilemma.
De Blasio has so far called only one snow day -- Jan. 3, 2014, when more than 9 inches fell on Staten Island.