Snow days are gaining a cult following in Arlington, all because of the “voices” announcing school closings.

Last week, Arlington Community Schools’ parents and students received special phone calls from the voice of Morgan Freeman and Dolly Parton letting them know classes were canceled due to inclement weather.

“The time has come. Snow will soon fall, covering us in a quiet hush,” Freeman said as dramatic music played in the background. “And so tomorrow there will be no school.”

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For Thursday’s cancellation, Parton passed along “news sweeter than a batch of snow cream” that “we won’t be working 9 to 5 tomorrow ’cause it’s a snow day, y’all.”

The celebrity artificial-intelligence-generated voice messages are one of the ways ACS is turning what was previously just standard, boring snow-day announcements into something fun.

ACS Communications Director Tyler Hill says he is already hearing from parents who let the calls go to voicemail just so they will be sure to have a copy on their phones.

“I love it. I think it’s cute,” said Eron Greiner whose son Matthew is s senior at Arlington High this year. “When I first heard the Snoop (Dogg) call, I couldn’t believe it and had to go and play it again.”

Two years ago Hill began putting together special videos for Instagram and Facebook highlighting students and staff.

“I started it because I got tired of the boring snow announcements with just my voice,” Hill said. “Snow days are exciting. Kids love it; parents love it. And I just felt our messaging wasn’t living up to that fun moment.”

He pitched the idea of the snow video announcements to then-Superintendent Jeff Mayo, and it has continued and evolved to also include robocalls and texts under current ACS Superintendent Allison Clark.

“It keeps people anticipating who’s going to be the voice on the next robocall or what the next videos will look like,” Clark said.

Last month during the first snow day of the year, Hill created the district’s first AI-generated robocall message with a subscription-based app called Parrot that uses celebrity voices with their permission. Snoop Dogg let ACS parents and students know school would be out the next day “fo‘ shizzle.”

Hill said he remembers years ago before social media when the only way students and parents would find out if school was closed was by watching TV in the morning and waiting for the news ticker at the bottom screen to show their district.

“I want to kind of save that memory of waking up and running to the TV to see if your district was closed and now give this new memory of, ‘What are they going to put out next?’” Hill said.

He says he‘s already hearing of people in the community waiting for the robocalls to go to voicemail so they will have a copy to listen to on their phones.

A recent video involved groups of students from different grade bands giving not-so-subtle hints to the superintendent to call off school, all cleverly edited together by Hill.

“We try to incorporate a lot of different voices from staff members and students so there’s a buy-in from everyone,” Hill said, adding that there is a strategy to be enthusiastic, appreciative, informative, community-oriented and student-focused.

Clark said she is all about student engagement and creativity and she likes the chance to connect with students by appearing in the videos.

She said she remembers when not that long ago she was principal for a decade at Arlington Middle before moving over to the district’s central office.

“As you get further away from the school, you lose some of that connection,” she said. “And it’s very important for me to do as much as I can to maintain visibility and connection with students and employees.”

Hill also has two student interns who help with projects.

While we might’ve seen the last of the winter weather for this year, students and parents in Arlington are already wondering which celebrity they might hear from the next time it snows.