As a retired NYC public school teacher, I'll tell you what ever--it would have to be a blizzard with over a foot of snow and whiteouts, etc. before they would close NYC schools. I remember very well making my way to school at great peril, driving over glazed ice and sliding all over the place. Only to arrive and see only about 25% of the students in attendance. They were all ushered to the auditorium and shown a movie. SO much learning going on! And sometimes the snowplows buried my car and it was impossible to dig it out. So I had to take up to 3 buses to make it to school, standing out on mountains of ice and snow, freezing while waiting for the much-delayed buses. Only to find, again, the same scenario of 25% attendance and movies being shown. There was no academic activity going on, with 75% of the kids absent.
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I too taught in a city school (not NYC). And like you, I had to fight past snowdrifts to make it to work only to see most students absent. That was not always the safest thing, but it was part of the job.
That’s not my beef. My beef is how the new wave wiz-kid principals reacted.
The old-time principals would put notes on our school mailboxes the day after a bad snow. “Thank you for coming in yesterday. I know traveling was difficult.”
The new wiz-kid principals would also put notes on our school mailboxes the day after a bad snow. “This is a reminder that you will be docked a half-day pay for coming in late. Snow is no excuse.”
The interesting thing is that those wiz-kids often did not show up at all on bad travel days. Then they wondered why staff morale was so low.