By: Charity Meier | Novi Note | Published January 21, 2025
NOVI — Although the weather outside is well below zero, the Novi Community School District is on “fire” when it comes to music video announcements. In what is apparently becoming a tradition, the school district announced the cancellation of school Jan. 21 and Jan. 22 with the release of “It’s Still Snowing,”a previously unseen music video.
The video, available on Superintendent Ben Mainka’s YouTube account and posted to the district’s social media, was shot last year, as the district had anticipated having two snow days but ultimately only needed to use one.
“Actually it’s funny there’s a lyric in there, ‘I only got one snow day last year,’ and we wrote it about the year before (2023), but it turns out that it still works this year,” said Milan Thurman, 18, who stars in the video.
It features 2024 graduates Thurman and Nico Wang, current senior Bella Houchins, and Mainka, along with staff members and students from various schools within the district. The song “It’s still snowing,” is set to the tune of Elton John’s “I’m still standing.”
“Even though the lyrics do not completely fit a ‘Cold Day’ ... I hope it brings you some warmth and joy in the chilly days tomorrow and Wednesday,” Mainka said in a statement on the district’s website.
Classes were canceled on those days as a result of extremely cold temperatures. The National Weather Service projected wind chill temperatures to be 20 below zero on both days.
“I’ve kind of been waiting for, like, a whole year for it to come out and I couldn’t really say anything about it because I still wanted it to be a surprise,” said Houchins, 17.
Along with high school students, the video utilizes the middle school band and shows several elementary school kids singing, sledding and dancing, as well as a group of preschoolers jamming on the piano.
“I think Mr. (Nick) LeTarte went around to a bunch of different places in the district and got a bunch of different kids involved in the project, which was super cool to get a bunch of elementary school kids and to get the middle school band and all those different little snippets, such as Mr. (Christopher) Capuano faking a cough,” said Thurman.
Thurman said that Capuano, who teaches civics and history at Novi High, is “high school famous.” He described his former teacher as very funny and said that everyone enjoys being in his class.
The video also has a cameo appearance by David Baldwin, who teaches German at NHS, playing the electric guitar. Thurman said that Baldwin is a huge vinyl record buff and recalled that he often saw him playing the guitar in the hallways as people were walking by and sometimes in the middle of a class, during his time at NHS.
Houchins said one of her favorite memories from the experience was, at the direction of LeTarte, throwing snowballs at Thurmann for the video. That event can be seen at the end of the video.
Thurman, who is currently a freshman at The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, said that he has remained in contact with his former classmates who were in the video with him, despite now attending different schools.
“Everyone who is involved in that video, especially the people who sang, are all very near and dear,” he said. “We’re all really good friends.”
He said that through the videos he learned not to take himself so seriously, which he said is a lesson that has really helped him as he has continued to move forward in life. He said having creative outlets like that, especially in college, is “super fulfilling.”
“The biggest thing we all learned from that video is that it’s awesome to be silly,” Thurman said. “It’s really, really fun and it creates a better atmosphere if you are able to just let yourself go and have fun and sort of, like, play around.”
“It’s very nice to look back on that and have learned the ability to not get involved in your own, like, cynicism,” he said.
Thurman said a lot of the skills he learned at NHS while participating in the NHS choir and with the videos have transferred over to his experience in Maize Mirchi, an acapella group he performs with at U of M, and he gives credit to his choir teacher, Claire Schurig. He said she encouraged the concept of not taking yourself too seriously.
Houchins said the experience meant a lot to her as she plans to major in music when she goes to college. She said it was a good experience to be able to go to a music studio. It felt professional.
“I gained a lot more appreciation for Novi and for Mainka,” Houchins said. “It feels like he really cares about the kids, and it just really kind of affirmed the Novi values like caring and compassion, being a good friend. ... He just seems like he wants to get everybody involved and give students the best time, and I think snow-day videos are a really fun way to do that.”