No Snow Day for Boys at Yeshiva Schools

Outside, on the streets of Squirrel Hill, giggling, scarf-swathed children were slogging by, dragging wooden sleds, plastic saucers or inflatable tubes on their way to slide down the hills of Schenley Park.

But inside the Meyer Sivitz Boys High School of the Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, 16-year-old Mayer Gurkov was more concerned yesterday about using a rare afternoon break from classes to finish typing a paper than he was about romping with friends in the snow.

“I don’t do snowmen,” Mayer said with a slight grin. “People here are joking about [being outside]. But they’re doing their work.”

Students concentrating on books and papers were certainly the exceptions yesterday after a storm packing snow, sleet and ice prompted hundreds of schools in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia to cancel classes — some for a second day.

Mayer, who is from Wayne, N.J., but boards with a local family, and about 50 other Yeshiva high school students were among the very few young people around the region who spent yesterday at desks and in labs and gym classes rather than at leisurely snow-day pursuits.

But he and other students at the Jewish school said they weren’t particularly wistful about being at work indoors while students from city and suburban schools were free to ski, skate, watch DVDs or simply sleep late. Most live close enough to walk to school, they said, and their intense curriculum and long school days demand a disciplined approach.

“Sure, there’s been a couple of kids” who briefly yearned for a snow-induced respite, said Ari Witkes, 15, of Worcester, Mass. “But you come to school to learn. The kids who are here wouldn’t be thinking that [for long] or they wouldn’t be here.”

And even the Yeshiva Schools had an unusual schedule yesterday, thanks to the storm that hampered public transportation and coated streets and highways with ice.

The schools serve 420 students from preschool through high school who complete Judaic studies as well as secular course work. Many walk to classes, while others are driven by parents who arrange car pools.

Classes usually begin at 7:30 a.m. and run as late as 9 p.m. for high school students, said Rabbi Yossi Rosenblum, principal of the boys school. After checking weather reports and learning that Pittsburgh Public Schools would be closed yesterday, Yeshiva Schools’ administrators decided that they, too, would adjust their schedule.

“We believe in school, in structure and discipline,” Rabbi Rosenblum said, explaining that administrators were reluctant to close altogether. “But we use judgment in deciding.”

Administrators realized that it could be difficult, particularly for younger children, to arrive on time while streets were still dark and potentially dangerous from uncleared snow and ice.

Also, the rabbis who teach Judaic studies live near enough to walk to classes, Rabbi Rosenblum said, but that is not the case with all instructors for secular classes. As snow continued to fall and roads grew more treacherous, administrators recognized that some general studies teachers might not be able to arrive on time, or at all, he said.

So administrators, who use a telephone hot line to notify parents, canceled classes for younger children and students at the Girls High School, which is in a separate building where most secular subjects are taught in the morning, Rabbi Rosenblum said. Only classes at the Boys High School, where Judaic studies are taught in the morning, were held, and they were on an abbreviated schedule that began at 9 a.m.

“Some were griping. They know that other schools are closed, and also that other students are not here,” said Rabbi Rosenblum, who was pressed into service as a substitute for a teacher whose wife had a baby Tuesday.

“Even as an adult, you look out and see the beautiful snow,” he said. “They’re kids. When they came in, they were a little sluggish, but by 10 [a.m.] everything was normal.”

In the afternoon, high school boys got an extended four-hour break in which they were permitted to leave, but they were required to return last night for dinner and Jewish philosophy lessons.

Rabbi Rosenblum said administrators briefly considered taking students on a snow-tubing trip but just as quickly reconsidered out of concerns over road conditions.

Instead, some boys hurriedly organized an afternoon football game in the park. Others who were less enthusiastic about venturing into clouds of snow whipped up by brisk winds said they’d be just as happy to wrap up indoors and get ahead on their reading.

“It’s not so bad,” said Ari. “We have four hours to go outside and play like everyone else or stay in if it’s too cold.”