Another day of snow, another day of no school. On March 5, Marcia Brucks, principal at Immaculate Conception School in North Little Rock, was facing yet another boring recorded voice message to alert parents that their kiddos would not be coming to class.
“I just thought the parents are tired of hearing from me, hearing my voice on the phone, and we thought let’s do something fun,” Brucks told Arkansas Catholic.
And what can be more fun than singing “Thank You for Being a Friend,” the theme song from the hit 1980s sitcom “The Golden Girls” — with new lyrics of course. Pre-kindergarten teacher Jan Sanders became a songwriter for the day, penning lyrics of icy roads and Cyber Day assignments, to the delight of many parents:
“Thank you for listening my friend, Schools are closed ‘cause there is ice again
The roads are bad; there's no need to come to school
Do your cyber homework
before returning back to school
This may be the only day at home we pray
And the message would be clear, Thank you for staying away”
Brucks said, “My favorite part was definitely the last line, ‘Thank you for staying away.’ I'm sure there were many students who were heartbroken because they had to stay away.”
Pre-kindergarten teacher Renee Hiatt, assistant principal Nicole Schafer and Brucks also helped perform the song.
“We got a lot of love from parents — ‘that was awesome,’ ‘you guys are talented,” Brucks said.
Brucks and Schafer have become quite the singing stars of late. They also created a video for the annual booster-thon, dressed up as nuns singing “I Will Follow Him,” from the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie, “Sister Act” before transitioning to, “We Will Rock You” by Queen.
“We do all kinds of strange things, especially later in the year,” Brucks said with a laugh.
And this moment of snow-crazy behavior might just lead to a new snow day tradition at IC.
“We’ve already talked about songs we could do for next year,” Brucks said. “Hopefully we won’t need one anytime soon, I’m praying.”
