When a late-winter blizzard descended on New Jersey and caused South Brunswick Schools to close on February 23 and 24, it left the District with a difficult choice to make. We had used a total of three snow days this winter, but the schedule only had two makeup days. So where to find that third day? On the March 5 Board meeting, Dr. Bragen announced that we would be making that day up on Monday, March 30, or what was supposed to be the first day of Spring Break. This created a challenge for the many students and staff members who had already made plans for the week off, and a bigger challenge for the administration, who had to plan for an unpredictable day full of large-scale absences.
All in all, there were over 30 teachers and at least 968 students out of the building on this day.
What is school like for the students and staff who did make it in? The Viking Vibe is on the scene:
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In classrooms across SBHS, the vibe seemed to shift between peace and chaos depending on which classes were in session and their placements. Some classrooms were turned into HAPs, due to shortage of rooms and staff to house all the students with no subs or teachers, while others were in session, though they had significantly smaller numbers. Some teachers still assigned work, though it was much calmer than a typical school day’s work, with a movie running in the background—like Shark Tank in B307 or Captain America: Civil War in A209—or long-term work that wasn’t due at the end of class. Global Studies Teacher Mr. Peter Ogrodnik said, followed a similar framework with his classes, “Yeah, I mean it’s expected this winter we had a lot of snow so we had to put Monday on and it’s just par for the course that is why you tend to plan anything monumental for the day before break.” Some teachers already had lesson plans prepared for today, predicting the situation with the make-up snow day months in advance. The Culinary Arts Teacher, Ms. Natalie Taranto, shared, “I planned for this. My activities today are what I needed to do, but it’s a light work day because I knew spring break was going to be cut short.” An art student, Varsha Narepalepu (’26), stated that “I do like that my classes are smaller, because we’re not doing anything. It was really chill.” All in all, students and teachers alike caught some semblance of a break, with a much-needed peaceful day in lieu of the first day of spring break.
—Bhavya Natarajan (’27), Advaita Pasupaleti (’29), Cody Eigenbauer (’27)
In the auditorium, the emptiness of the building was reflected in the scarce amount of students during third block. While in other periods it was packed with students due to cafeteria HAPs being syphoned to fill the few hundred seats, it was emptier this block due to lunch rotations. For all four blocks, SBHS Dean Mrs. Lori Sullivan, chose to play The Sandlot while students were working on their assignments. “We wanted to make sure that it was 88 minutes or less, so that students would actually be able to see the whole length of the movie. It was something fun to do, and had some positive messages that we thought students would enjoy” said Mrs. Sullivan. Outside the auditorium entrance, Assistant Principal Mr. Jeffrey Rumen sat with ID scanners at the ready. With each wave of students, he logged attendance into the Genesis turnstile as students found their friends and took seats across the audience and lecture halls. With so many students flooding the auditorium, 2nd block experienced some technology issues as the student phones overwhelmed the SBSD-BYOD network. This led to actions like hardwiring Mr. Rumen’s and the security guards’ laptops directly to the school Wi-Fi. Properly staffing this HAP became a concern, with Mr. Rumen wanting to keep the balance of about 1 staff member to 75 students or below. “The issue with third block is that our admin team also has to cover the cafeteria, so I wanted as few students as possible down here during this block” said Mr. Rumen, as he explained the special circumstances for the third block (with most classes simply being kept in their usual classrooms because of a limited amount of substitute teachers).
– Ashley Soltys (‘27), Aanya Soma (‘29), Jenni Vargas Ramirez (‘27)
While some struggle to wake up this morning, others are enjoying their extra sleep and warm weather by the beach. Originally, spring break was scheduled to begin on Monday, March 30th. However, due to inclement weather, this day had to be made up in order for the school year to be completed by June 26, 2026. Now, administrators and students alike who have previously planned vacations are not able to attend school while others decided to clock out by the Friday before. This resulted in mass absentees on the day of. For areas such as the cafeteria, a place that is usually loud and hectic, many tables were left empty and the atmosphere was much quieter.
–Eliza Khan (‘26), Safia Husain (‘28), Nisa Yilmaz (‘28)
While many other districts have a full week of spring break, a handful of students at SBHS drag themselves out of bed to attend school on Monday, March 30. Many hallways and classrooms were empty, and many staff and students did not show up. Physical Education, a particularly participation-heavy class, was short on students. PE teacher Ms. Heidi Henning said “I have 38 students and 18 of them were out last block. I had a quarter out. It’s hard to continue what we are doing because so many kids are absent”. Many classes had to be put to a stop because of this drastic change in number of students. Of course, the students are enjoying this change because they don’t have any assignments. Zidane Jordan happily said, “I think it’s very peaceful but I’ve had zero subs. We worked in the first half and watched a movie in all my classes”. Many students and teachers’ concern was that if more than 50% of students didn’t show up the day wouldn’t count, but thankfully this was just a rumor and students will be able to start their spring break Tuesday, March 31.
–Malavika Parulekar (‘27) Ariba Ahmad (‘29)
During Block 3A, the library hosted an estimate of 25 students working independently, talking with peers, playing chess, or just sleeping with no care about what’s going on. The school librarian Mrs. Lisa Maganello observes “It’s the quietest it’s ever been in here, it’s really quiet..” She notes that students in the auditorium weren’t allowed to leave, and come to the library, which explains the lack of students in the library. Due to other districts already starting their spring break, some teachers brought their children to come to the library and check out books, and have a specialized small book cart with their favorite children’s books. Similarly, down the hall in SPS there was nobody around. Most staff were spending their time either in their own rooms finishing small tasks before spring break or chatting with colleagues about their plans. After a casual interview with Mrs. Smith about the many missing teachers and students finally coming to a personal conclusion that “considering everything it would have been more productive if they kept today off” and maybe begrudgingly taken an extra day in the summer.
–Raina Simlote(‘29) Rashi Tiwari(‘28) Sakina Tasnim(‘28) Sean Asonye(29’)
