Just as we were beginning to embrace the many challenges of this year’s winter conditions, we were hit with something perhaps worse than large amounts of snowfall: record-breaking negative temperatures.

For students, including those in the Moon Area School District, the recent spell of negative temperatures has meant school closings and school delays. For students, waking up to a school delay is almost as exciting as waking up Christmas morning.

Joy overwhelms you with the two-hour opportunity to sleep in, or cram for a test, or the sole fact the day will be two hours shorter.

On the other hand, for parents this has become more of an issue because they have the responsibility to scramble and make sure children have some sort of transportation to school. In many cases, parents are forced to go into work later because they must first get their kids to school.

Karen Chwilka, Moon Township resident, feels that two-hour delays don’t do much when the weather is terribly cold.

“Sending kids to school in frigid, single digit temperatures is unsafe for children’s safety,” she said.

Chwilka says the two-hour delays do little but prevent a make-up day later in the year. She believes conditions by 10:00 are really no better than at 8:00, rendering the delay irrelevant.

Her daughter, Danielle, a sophomore at Moon High School, sees another problem with the late start.

“Classes are too short to start new lessons, and most of time class is just a study period or a waste of time during a two-hour delay,” she said.