Two snowstorms bringing a total of 16.5 inches of snow to Bel Air caused Harford County Public Schools and JC to close for three days, from Jan. 26 to 28. Due to the weather, JC canceled Archbishop Edwin O’Brien’s visit, but it did not stop Spanish teacher Jane Michael and 20 students from flying to Spain.
O’Brien planned to celebrate a “pre-Catholic Schools Week Mass” on Jan. 27, according to campus minister Patti Murphy-Dohn, who had been trying to arrange for him to visit since he became the 15th Archbishop of Baltimore in Oct. 2007.
“I am extremely disappointed, to say the least, that the bad weather forced a cancellation of this visit of the Archbishop,” Murphy-Dohn said.
Over 200 grandparents and parents planned to attend the school-wide Mass, which was to be covered by “The Catholic Review” and other local media.
As of Jan. 29, the Archbishop’s visit has not been rescheduled, but Murphy-Dohn is working to have O’Brien come in spring.
“I am personally committed to make the next scheduled visit an outstanding occasion…and I look forward to having that happen,” Murphy-Dohn said.
The threat of snow was far from exciting for senior Amanda Hudak. While other students posted Facebook status updates about hoping for snow and no school, Hudak hoped that the weather wouldn’t affect her flight to Spain.
Despite icy conditions, the flight departed at its scheduled time, even though 173 other PHL flights had been cancelled earlier that day.
“I was really worried that [the flight] would be delayed, but it’s leaving on time, so I’m happy,” Hudak said from Philadelphia International Airport.
JC has already used all five of its allotted snow days this year, according to Principal Paul Barker. “We used a ‘snow day’ for [Jackie] Moeser’s funeral day-off, and we have had four snow days, so we have used them all and it’s not even February, traditionally our toughest weather month,” Barker said.
With the possibility of snow in the local forecast, “more snow days would probably have us looking hard at pulling back some days from our end-of-March spring break week,” Barker said.
Additional reporting by Collin Hoofnagle.
Jenny Hottle is the online chief of jcpatriot.com.