I love snow and freezing weather. I really do. I’m 45 years old and I still like to go sledding. No joke. It's not always a pretty sight when I go sledding, but I love it! I guess growing up in Florida and having Christmas every year in 85 degrees will do that to a guy!
One thing I don’t love is making decisions about whether or not to have a late start or snow day when inclement weather is upon us. It’s an exhausting experience both physically and mentally. No matter what we decide, we upset people. It’s often a “no-win” situation that we just try and make to the best of our ability.
There are SO many factors in play. First off, and most importantly, you think about the safety of your students, those that ride school buses, those that drive themselves, and everyone in between. You think about making sure you meet Nebraska’s Rule 10 guidelines for accredited public schools needing to be in session for a certain amount of hours. You think about all of your students that might be stuck at home on a snow day. Not all of our kiddos get to enjoy snow days with hot chocolate, puzzles, X-Box, movies, and a lunch date with mama. Many of our kids live in poverty and spend snow days in a freezing house with no food or adult as their parent(s) have to work. You also think about the fact that YPS is a “business” and each contract day costs us about $22,000. These are not easy decisions.
This is Nebraska. You can't call off school every time it's cold or a little bit snowy. We would never get in the 1,080 required hours of school we need for accreditation. You have to have school on some days that some folks think you shouldn't. It is what it is.
When we experience snow and/or ice overnight, Troy Rowe and myself wake up around 4:00 AM. I take off in my truck and usually head north and east to check roads, look for drifts, see how icy the conditions are, etc. Troy heads south and west. We are looking to see if our buses can make it on their routes. We are checking visibility. Troy is normally in contact with the County Roads Department to see what their thoughts are. I am normally in communication with the National Weather Service out of Hastings to get up-to-the-minute forecasts and accumulation totals.
Troy and I visit on the phone by 4:30 AM to compare notes. I then begin to text superintendent friends in the area to see what they’re thinking. I usually communicate with Holly in Hampton, Josh in Seward, Tim at Centennial, Brent at Cross County, and sometimes Damon in Aurora. We try to get a decision made by 5:15 AM so that we can begin to put the word out. We have school staff that often arrive by 6:15 AM so we need to get the word out quickly. Plus, we are sensitive to the fact that many of our students’ families will have to figure out daycare arrangements if we have a snow day.
The worst kind of “weather event” is when forecasters and news reporters tell us about huge, massive, and threatening storms that are headed our way! I will never forget in 2010-11 that “Snowmageddon” was headed for us. We heard about it for days. I don’t remember the exact details but I do know that numerous schools across the state were announcing on a Tuesday that they were not going to have school the next day due to this massive storm that was bearing down on us. Here in York, we waited and waited. We did NOT want to announce a closing before any white stuff hit the ground!
Well, the day got later and later….school dismissed. We had not closed yet for the next day. Every passing hour, more and more schools closed. There was still no snow on the ground. By 9:30 PM that Tuesday, we gave into peer pressure and announced that were closed the next day even though there was still no snow on the ground. I barely slept a wink that night….I remember thinking that it better snow and snow and snow! I woke up at 4:00 AM and there was no snow on the ground. There was no snow on the ground at 5:00 AM or 7:00 AM or 9:00 AM. I was feeling like an idiot! Finally that day, around 1:00 PM, we got about 2-inches of snow. It was NOT “Snowmageddon.” We could have had school! When our school calendar only allows for two snow days before make-ups have to be scheduled, you don't want to waste any!
Another “weather event” that I will NEVER forget is January 6, 2014. It was a Monday. It was the first day back to school after Christmas Break for pretty much every school district in Nebraska and it was bitterly cold. We had no snow or ice but we had cold, cold weather.
The whispers of schools thinking about closing “due to cold weather” began that Saturday, January 4th and they increased on the morning of Sunday, January 5th. I couldn't believe my ears. Closing because it is cold? What? This is Nebraska. This is January. Yes, it can get kind of cold from time to time! Wow!
I texted dozens of superintendents the early afternoon of Sunday, January 5th to see what they were thinking. Every single one of them was adamant they were going to have school the next day. By 4:30 that afternoon, everything changed. Several school districts feared their buses would gel over and not start in the morning due to “severely cold weather.” Two superintendents tried to start their school buses around 3:30 that afternoon and they would not start. That’s when it began. Several school districts cancelled for the next day due to “severely cold weather.” The weathermen on TV were having a field day. It was “bone chilling cold” and “dangerously frigid” everywhere you turned! Schools began to close like dominoes!
I was in constant contact with Troy Rowe, our transportation director. He assured me over and over again that our buses would be fine in the morning. You see, we are very lucky to have a covered and insulated bus barn; something most school districts do not have. It never gets below 38-40 degrees in there. Plus, our buses get fueled with an additive to helps prevent gelling in cold weather. We decided that even though it was cold, that we were going to have school.
We posted on social media our decision to have school. Boy, did the claws come out! We were vilified on the YPS Facebook page, all over Twitter, on the Facebook pages of many adults and students, as well as on the Facebook pages of several TV stations. We were called every bad name you could imagine. I thought my defensive coordinator in college had already called me every evil name in the book back during my playing days, but I was wrong. We were accused of putting our kids’ lives at risk. It was nasty.
What people didn’t realize, and we should have done a better job of stating, is that most of the school districts that closed did so because of their buses NOT being in a covered and insulated building. Most school buses are left outside in the elements. Those districts couldn’t guarantee their buses would start. We could.
We knew kids would not be walking to school anyway. We have tons of walkers to school in the fall and spring when the weather is nice but hardly any on cold days in the winter. Families get that stuff figured out and make arrangements with each other, neighbors, etc. We assumed most families would make arrangements so their children wouldn’t have to walk. We figured that if teenagers had an unreliable vehicle they drove to school, that their parents would make sure they had made arrangements to get them to school on cold, cold days. We also knew/know that parents can keep their kids at home if they choose to do so. Parents have to be the #1 provider and protector of their children. That should never change.
That decision came down to us knowing our buses would start and that many of our kids would be much better off in a warm school building with hot food and a structured environment that they might not have at their houses. We were also coming off a 10-day Christmas Break.
I rode one of our buses that morning. It was cold but not horrible. Everything went fine with all of our routes. We had right at 89% of our kids in school that day, which is less than our average daily attendance of 96%. Some families elected to keep their kids at home, which is ALWAYS their right. From what I can remember, we were one of just four or five districts in the state in session that day.
Here’s the REAL KICKER, however. I don’t remember the exact temperatures and wind chills from 1-6-14 but I do remember that we had one day later that same month and two days in February 2014 that were COLDER….and you know what….EVERYONE had school on those days….there wasn’t the media build-up and ALL school districts were in session. Closing due to “bone chilling cold” or “dangerous wind chills” wasn’t even mentioned after January 6, 2014.
In a perfect world, we love to call snow days the night before if/when possible. On many occasions, it is bad enough at 10 PM to make the call for the next day. We always try to communicate our decision as soon as we can. It really stinks when you are “supposed” to get snow overnight and everyone wants you to call a snow day before any snow actually hits the ground. We don’t plan on closing school due to “forecasts” very often because we’ve been burnt several times.
Sometimes, we go with a 2-hour “late start” because this allows our buses and teenage drivers a little extra time and daylight to navigate some tricky areas. Sometimes, we will first announce a late start and have that turned into a snow day. It’s a strategy that can buy us another hour or two to get an updated forecast, see how many roads can be cleared by county and city workers, etc.
We hate to, but sometimes even have an "early dismissal" due to weather. We had this last December when an ice storm moved into town and we felt it was best to dismiss at 1:30 to allow plenty of time to get people home safely while it was still daylight. These decisions are not made lightly.
We do our best when these decisions are made. We're not perfect. You won't always agree. Our parents always have the right to keep their children at home if/when they think we are having school on a dangerous day.
Growing up in sunny and hot Florida, I never thought I would be in charge of snow day decisions! How ironic is that?
Go Dukes!
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