There were plenty of complaints – loud ones – about how the Jamestown Public Schools District handled cold, snowy weather over the past couple of weeks.

It’s not like these are new complaints. We hear them every year – particularly in Jamestown when roads may be passable but sidewalks often aren’t when children in some city neighborhoods have to trudge their way to school. No school district will navigate school closings to everyone’s satisfaction every year.

But the thin line schools have always faced when making the decision to stay open or to close when the weather is questionable is getting harder and harder each year. Over the past couple of years the state has added state holidays to an already tight school calendar with Juneteenth and Lunar New Year, which we ‘celebrated’ Wednesday. No one wants to start school before the Labor Day holiday. No one wants to see school go much later into June than it already does. Don’t even broach the idea of eliminating days off during spring vacation, when many And the state isn’t going to change its 180-day attendance requirement for students.

We understand the feelings of those who want schools to cancel school when it’s too cold or when travel is a real pain for both school buses, parents and children who walk. But we also understand the math problem created by the constrictions of the state’s gradual removal of school days by approving new state holidays. It would have been an easier call to cancel school an extra day over the past couple of weeks if schools weren’t already scheduled to be closed for Lunar New Year.

There are plenty of bills introduced each year in the state Legislature to add state holidays. We’ve been lucky that only a couple have been approved in recent years, because we’re feeling the effects every winter when there simply aren’t as many snow days to be used.