Snow Days
I drove my daughter to school this morning and the entire time I was thinking… why are schools open? For while the main roads are clear the side roads are a rutted mess of ice which turned my normally 10 minute round-trip into a harrowing 35 minute keep-my-wits-about-me experience.
There’s no doubt about it. The side roads are dangerous, and the fresh coating of snow – already laying on the clear roads – doesn’t bode well.
While it isn’t my favorite thing to do, I don’t mind driving in snow. But this morning’s commute wasn’t about snow. It was about what happens to snow on roads that haven’t seen a plow. It’s about two lane roads that turn into one. It’s about so much snow piled up on street corners that school children’s only choice in getting around these mountains is walking in the streets – streets with drivers who realize that if they stop they probably won’t move again.
It also occurred to me that if school hadn’t been canceled last week it would have been canceled today. Which makes me question where safety ranked in the decision to open schools. After my morning drive I’m thinking safety wasn’t #1 on the list. My guess is that it ranked third, after the dilemma of making up snow days and the upcoming DSTP. Think I’m over-reacting? Then ask yourself if last weeks snow storm had been our first and only storm would school be open today?
I’m guessing… no.
Tags: Safety, Snowpocalypse
A boy was hit by a car this morning. Luckily he’s okay.
Also, BSD Superintendent issues warning:
As I type this 3 cars are stuck on the street outside my house. One of them just reversed down the street into the intersection with an oncoming car. Be careful out there.
If they can close the whole school system for a week, why can’t they move the DSTP back a week or so? Actually the DSTP already has scheduled make-up days.
I guess you can’t really blame DelDot for the less than adequate snow removal since they really don’t have the consistent practice it takes to be efficient at it.
Here in Sussex a lot of the schools are still closed from last weeks storm. Looks like next year will be the same since there is no Sussex representation on the joint finance committee which means additional snow removal funding won’t likely be coming here.
“It also occurred to me that if school hadn’t been canceled last week it would have been canceled today”
Pandora, some of the schools down here are closed, most of them have 2 hour delays (we got next to no snow this morning). I agree with your above statement. If next month, the back roads were this bad, school would be closed.
FBH, the City of Dover specifically mentioned your point last month during the “Snow” Summit that Dover and DelDot had. All of Dover’s experienced snow removers had retired, leaving no on with real experience with large amounts of snow. This storm, they brought a couple of them back for the storm to help out and teach the new kids how things are done 🙂
wait. the superintendent of the brandywine school district’s name is HOLODICK?!?!! kids today are so spoiled. in my day we had to come up with funny refrigerator jokes to make fun of our district officials.
While this might seem like a silly reason to keep schools open, a lot of parents had to go back to work today and could not have stayed home to watch their young children again. If the students had not been off all last week, schools might have been closed today.
Wait until the state decides that it won’t forgive all of the snow days from December and last week. When school starts interfering with Easter break of June vacations, things could get uglier than Clayton Street after a foot of snow.
Pandora–the individual districts decision aside–believe it or not–YOU as a parent can make the decision not to send your child to school because of the safety surrounding the travel, and it is a valid excuse. Just a lil’ FYI–because I know we have some neighborhoods still blocked off, and lots w/ great access, but the whole district can’t shut down on some spot situations. The buses are sent to the nearest available “outpost”, the neighborhood entrance etc. Just let the school know the situation. It’s a tough call to make for a whole district….and for every parent questioning “Why?”, this latest round has 3 people asking “Why not?”.
YOU as a parent can make the decision not to send your child to school because of the safety surrounding the travel, and it is a valid excuse.
True… but when the school is closed, they stop the homework and reschedule the tests and events. But if you keep your kid home when school is open, they miss tests and activities and the homework piles up, excuse or not. Sure, safety comes first, but academics are important too.
It is the classic risk analysis problem of weighing a grave but very unlikely threat, against a minor but certain negative outcome. The school should not put parents in that position.
As in illness, funeral, or an appointment…..
Actually, the schools need to take a page from the private sector and figure out how to get the homework and assignments to the homes during the snow closure (and even on the iffy days when school is open anyway, like today). Lots of us worked at home last week, why can’t kids study at home? Our school did a little of this, but only by private initiative of the teacher; not in any organized way.
Sure, I could have made the decision, but I hadn’t realized how bad the roads were until I was driving them – and they are really bad.
And making up snow days, DSTP and parents having to go back to work, while valid concerns, should not be the determining factor on when to close schools.
And if the safety problem is that there is a giant pile of snow at your kids bus stop – get a shovel.
Get a shovel? Right now we have over a 12 foot mountain of ice and snow on every corner so that doesn’t seem reasonable. And shovel it where?
Right now Vancouver needs some snow… 🙂
The wingnuts who are crowing that all this snow is evidence against global warming – they are pretty silent about Vancouver.
Anon shouldn’t equal stupid.
Yes, anon shouldn’t equal stupid. We already have the term “Republican David” for that.
Joanne is right that we can’t keep schools closed until every street is clear. There is nothing wrong with taking that 40 minutes to get to school. Most are going to the store, work, and everywhere else. It just takes more time and caution.
We do need more flexibility. Students should have at home studies during the time out. We knew that at least one blizzard was coming. As it is, we need to delay the last DSTP so that students can catch up.
I call for DOE to delay the DSTP’s at least a week.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100216/NEWS/100216019/Icy-roads-stall-school-buses-across-state
Or maybe we should have kept the schools closed. Looks like buses are getting stuck both upstate and downstate
Thanks for the link, Mark. And the article states:
Love the term risk in relation to “prolonging the school year” and “DSTP”
On my way to Milton to drop off my kid at school this morning. I saw one school bus that was stuck in snow being pulled out by a tractor,and another that was abandoned.
A few years back a school bus got stuck and blocked the exit to my neighborhood… I got it out with a snow shovel and a bag of kitty litter I had in my trunk just for that sort of thing.
In Seaford, many (I’d say about half) of our kids walk to school. Not only are sidewalks not clear (including on State property, though the schools are nice), but many of the roads that they would then be forced to walk in are icy and/or one lane, and you cannot see around the corners because of snow piles. We were off today for the kids and it was the right decision. I don’t understand why they have not continued to work on snow removal and opening the roads. There is no excuse for it to be as bad as it is a week after the fact.