While some parts of the country are experiencing some bizarre weather right now, it is sunny in Washington state and a small private school north of Seattle wanted to make sure that its students could enjoy the day. So, rather than an extended recess, administrators just decided to cancel the day altogether.
According to The Associated Press, Bellingham Christian School posted on its website, “SCHOOL CANCELLED DUE TO GREAT WEATHER! WAHOOO!” The school is located in Bellingham, 90 miles north of Seattle and sunny days are rare there this time of year. So, principal Bob Sampson wanted the 205 students at the school to enjoy the day.
“Yeah! It's a Sun Day today and everyone gets the day off from school,” the message posted on the site read. “Thank you teachers and students for working so hard. Enjoy your day and send me your creative pictures of you playing outside in the sunshine. We will show them at our Monday assembly.”
Sampson explained to the AP, "In a world that's got a lot hard things going, it's fun to create a moment joy.”
The Los Angeles Times reports that the school had not used any of its snow days this year, so they planned a ‘Sun Day’ instead. They planned to do it yesterday, but it was too cloudy.
Sampson gave his 22 staff members the day off as well. He did make sure that parents were ok with having the day off, calling them to make sure it wasn’t an inconvenience. “Kids just love the anticipation of sitting around see if school is canceled when it snows...You know, we haven't had any snow days, so I thought 'how fun would it be to create that anticipation for kids when it's nice out?’” Sampson told the AP.
One parent, Tracie Lease, told the LA Times, “My kids look forward to it...Especially if we don’t have a snow day, we have a sun day.”