News
Weathering Winter Woes
WRITTEN BY CLAUDIA NEWTON
CLAUDIA@STNONLINE.COM
I
t’s a fine line to walk: Should administrators keep schools open amid harsh winter conditions to avoid loss of learning time and school-provided meals and childcare, or should they close citing safety concerns? Student transporters creatively dealt with this dilemma when several winter storms brought extreme cold and snow to much of the country. School is generally canceled due to extreme cold or snow that
either freezes on the roads or turns them into a slushy mess. Districts consult National Weather Service reports, school department heads, city and county officials, law enforcement and staff who drive the roads early in the morning before making a decision. Parents are notified of closings through contact information on file as well as the district website, social media, apps and local news outlets. Tompson Public Schools in Connecticut has closed for eight days so far this school year because of winter weather. Kathy Chaf- fee, school bus driver and assistant to the transportation coordi- nator, explained that the department’s biggest challenge has been the communication involved in making school closing decisions in time and relaying information to the drivers. “If the cancellation happens after (drivers) are already there and
have pre-tripped their buses, then they do get paid for that run. But usually it’s called beforehand so hopefully they’re not out on the dangerous roads trying to come in to work. We try to call it early,” she explained. “I think the cooperation has been pretty good this year between the highway department, the buses and the superintendent.” But sometimes even the best laid plans go awry due to the
unpredictability of nature. Minnesota is no stranger to winter weather, but a snow storm in late January quickly became more severe than originally predicted. St. Paul Public Schools decided to dismiss early. But that decision proved to be too little, too late. Four to eight inches was originally predicted for the area, but
snowfall from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. eventually added up to more than a foot. Over 20 buses became stuck, and replacements were not readily available. Traffic stalled and phone lines locked up. Stu- dents still at school were stranded until there were enough buses to bring them home, and some did not get home until midnight.
18 School Transportation News • MARCH 2018
“It was the sort of storm that I’ve never experienced in my career in transportation,” said Director of Transportation Tom Burr. He noted that the perfect mix of conditions came together to create a “very challenging event.” As they say, hindsight is 20/20. In the future, Burr added, he
“personally will err a little more on the side of caution.” When school is closed, an important consideration is make-up days and the staff needed to run them. Two Georgia districts came up with creative ways to avoid them altogether. After having to miss three days of regular instruction because of winter storms, Atlanta Public Schools put out a survey to princi- pals, teachers, staff, parents, students and community members on how to make up the lost time. Over 14,000 people responded, with almost 30 percent in favor of extending school days by 30 minutes during the months of February and March. At Gwinnett County Public Schools, Georgia’s largest school system, three built-in inclement weather days all had to be used during Hurricane Irma. Officials then decided to institute three Digital Learning Days to allow students to keep up with school- work on days that ice and snow caused dangerous road conditions. Transportation Director Don Moore shared that hourly employ- ees, including bus drivers and monitors, were also able to complete online training courses and get paid for those days. Moore added that this was the first year the digital learning format had been utilized and that more “job-specific” training is being developed. “What they did the first time was pretty generic HR stuff that would be applicable to all employees, but now through our safety and training department, we’re working on providing subject content—along with PowerPoints, videos and quizzes—that is directly related to pupil transportation,” he said. “Depending on the winter, it’s a challenge,” Kathy Chaffee laughed.
Tat’s certainly true, but student transporters are demonstrating the kind of innovation that meets these challenges head-on.
Visit
stnonline.com/go/au to read about a project that brought school buses to a Vermont district in order to ease wintertime complications for students and their parents.
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