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Principal's 'Let It Go' school closure parody draws flurry of attention

Snow is falling, schools are closing, and that can mean only one thing: Song parody announcements!And with his epic rendition of "Let it Snow" (set to the tune of "Let It Go"), the head of Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island hasn't just raised the bar on these little spotlight-grabbers, he's blown it completely away."The snow glows white on Route 95, not a tire track to be seen," sings
Moses Brown Head of School Matt Glendinning
Carissa Ray / YouTube/Mosesbrownschoolnews

Snow is falling, schools are closing, and that can mean only one thing: Song parody announcements!

And with his epic rendition of "Let it Snow" (set to the tune of "Let It Go"), the head of Moses Brown School in Providence, Rhode Island hasn't just raised the bar on these little spotlight-grabbers, he's blown it completely away.

"The snow glows white on Route 95, not a tire track to be seen," sings Matt Glendinning. "We could make you come to school, but that would just be mean.”

Last year, we were all charmed by the deadpan school heads at Durham Academy in North Carolina, who rapped "Ice Ice Baby" enthusiastically to let their kids know they'd have the day off; and two educators at Stephens Elementary School in Burlington, Ky. made headlines by turning "Bohemian Rhapsody" into a closing announcement.

But compared to Glendinning's video, they're just amateurs. This isn't some static shot taken by a webcam. He's got scenery (OK, green-screened shots of snow-covered streets), set changes (he's at his desk! Then he's not!) and costumes (do a hat, scarf and mittens count?). And he's put a hilarious spin on the one song that makes most every parent cringe by now.

"Sunday morning we saw the weather report," Moses Brown’s director of communications and community engagement Adam Olenn told Boston's WBUR radio, "and we said, 'Oh, we've got to get this done.'"

Olenn said he wrote the song in about 15 minutes, but the four-minute video's "shoot" was planned far in advance. The whole thing took about "a week, week and a half," said Olenn, and final scenes were shot last Friday in anticipation of New England's anticipated wintry weather.

"I’ve seen a couple of funny principal snow day closing,s and I thought we could really crush that," said Olenn.

They did, though we're still charmed by the Lo-Fi quality of those earlier parodies.

So give "School Is Closed" a watch, but bear in mind: That's not Glendinning singing. It's actually school choir director Justin Peters. It takes a village, to close a school, right?

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