Dr. David Hopson
To date, we’ve been fortunate to have very nice weather this fall. Many of us didn’t even get a killing frost until mid to late October. Compare this to just two years ago when we had a significant snowfall on Halloween. While it would be nice to think this warm weather will continue, the reality is that one thing that changes routinely in New England is the weather.
As we all know, the Gateway Regional School District covers 205 square miles of real estate with dramatic differences in elevation and various types of roads. Given the many miles our buses travel each day, our two-tier transportation system, and the timing of school, decisions impacting delays, early releases, and school cancellations must take many factors into consideration.
We often find great differences in weather and road conditions on the same day within our district. This of course impacts travel conditions and sometimes requires choosing to delay school openings, cancel school, or to release students early based upon the poor conditions in one town even if another town has no problems with travel. Given that these options impact every family with students, and that we seldom make everyone happy (we receive complaints both for and against each and every weather related decision), I thought I’d again review the process used in making these decisions.
For the sake of simplicity, we’ll begin with the delayed start or canceling of schools. As most of you know, this decision needs to be made early in the morning to provide families with time to modify their daily schedule, to ensure that appropriate responses at our schools happen on a timely basis (meals, calling staff, removing snow, and sanding/salting), and to provide ample time for the bus companies to alert their drivers. My goal is to have the information I need by 5 a.m. and to make the decision no later than 5:15 a.m.
I receive information from a number of sources including the conditions at and around my home in Blandford, weather reports from a number of sources, information from staff members at the other end of the district, along with information on the road conditions from our highway departments and occasionally from the Russell State Police Barracks. The decision between a delay and cancellation rests on the timing of the storm and predictions of how long it will last. A cancellation is called for if the road conditions are bad, the storm has not ended, and is predicted to continue for several hours. On rare occasions, we also cancel if the storm is predicted to start during the morning and last throughout the day (i.e., road conditions are good at 5 AM but may be bad by the time the buses hit the road). What many people don’t realize is that administrators and custodial staff are still expected to report to the schools during these cancellations although students and the remaining staff are not expected to attend.
An early release from school is a more difficult decision. If a storm is predicted to start sometime during the day and students are already in school, the decision is when, or if, to release students early. Even if there isn’t an early release, we also need to consider whether or not after-school activities or evening events should be cancelled. This is complicated by the time needed to arrange busing for students; the inaccuracy of weather forecasts to predict when the storm will start, how rapidly it will intensify, and how long it will last; and the differing release times of PreK-6th grade verses the 7-12th grade students. In many cases, the weather forecasts are not accurate enough to pinpoint a particular starting time and we end up transporting students home after a storm has already begun, with the idea that the road conditions will only continue to deteriorate and we need to get off the roads as soon as possible. Other times, we release students early based on forecasts only to find that the storm doesn’t begin until after the students would normally have been home.
The bottom line in making these decisions is the safety of our students: is there a reasonable expectation that buses can safely negotiate our roads and deliver students to the schools or back home? I won’t cancel or delay school every time we get a little snow or ice because our road crews work diligently to keep the roads safe and stay ahead of the storm. However, based upon the information I receive about our local conditions, I will not hesitate to be the only school district in the area with a delay, early release, or cancellation. Because of the need to keep abreast of local conditions, I extend my thanks to each individual who provides information regarding the conditions of the roads in their towns—the few minutes that this takes is essential in helping to ensure that I am able to make a sound decision based upon current conditions in our seven towns.
As always, announcements of the delay, early release and cancellation of school are put on local radio and television stations, posted to the website and are sent to home and/or work telephone numbers and emails of parents. I am very hopeful that our good weather will continue and that we can avoid a large number of school cancellations. In planning your vacations, please note that this year’s April vacation week has changed and is now April 18 – 25; and remember that if we miss more than 5 days of school, April vacation will be shortened.
