By Dan Russo • Catholic News Service • Posted February 4, 2019

DUBUQUE, IOWA (CNS) — Catholic Schools Week 2019 featured some wild weather, including snow and record-breaking subzero temperatures that created dangerous climatic conditions.

Most schools in the Archdiocese of Dubuque had four snow days between Jan. 27-31, which was most of Catholic Schools Week, observed Jan. 27-Feb. 2.

Several principals got very creative with how they announced the school closings, even making toe-tapping music videos in some cases.

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“The CSW (Catholic Schools Week) weather was frightful but these videos were delightful,” said Archdiocesan Superintendent of Schools Kim Hermsen.

Links to all the announcements can be found at the online version of this article in The Messenger, Dubuque’s archdiocesan newspaper.

Principal Beth Globokar of Regis Catholic Middle School in Cedar Rapids reworked the lyrics of the classic Vanilla Ice hit “Ice Ice Baby” for a social media post telling her students there would be no school Jan. 29-30.

Principal Geoff Kaiser of Marquette Catholic High School in Bellevue reminded his audience of all the positive aspects of being home because of inclement weather when informing the community of the Jan. 28 school closing. The list he ran down in a rap included: curling up with a good book and learning a casserole recipe.

“‘Iowa grows’ is our whole state slogan, but the deep freeze that we’re in has put us in slow motion,” he quipped.

After offering a song parody of Foreigner’s 1977 classic “Cold as Ice,” Marcel Kielkucki, principal of Beckman Catholic High School in Dyersville, capped off his message for Jan. 29-30 on a more serious note.

“Please pray for those who work outside in the cold these next couple of days, especially our farmers and their livestock,” he said.

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Russo is editor of The Witness, newspaper of of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.