You live in Maine, so I don't understand why anyone should stay home for snow. I live in Alaska. Sometimes we get a foot of snow overnight. They have the highway plowed, but no one's neighborhood street is plowed for at least a day or two after a big storm. Everyone still goes to work. We get a few cancellations from so and so who lives on a steep hill or something, but work goes on. The snow day would be only if the highway wasn't plowed, and that would be an extreme event.
It's just a matter of having proper snow tires, really. Many think they need AWD and trucks, but I've pushed snow with the front of my car before down the neighborhood street. My dad's had snow coming over the hood in his Crown Vic RWD.
If you look at Sweden and Norway, they almost never close schools. It's just a part of life.
