It was never an easy decision...

   We have had our share of snow this winter and along with the storms often come school closings because of the slippery and icy conditions and unsafe travel. To date, many schools in the area have shut down for three or four days and there are still several weeks of winter remaining. Those springtime snows in March can be awful treacherous and I anticipate that there may be at least one or two more days of school cancellations before we see the last of this winter,

   Calling off school may seem like an easy decision. Even Al Roker has added his two cents this year, calling out the Mayor of NYC for not closing the schools. But there is a great deal to consider.

   Back in the day when the decision to open or close school was my responsibility, my day would begin around 4:30 AM with a call from the weather service and a forecast for the day. If it had been snowing all night, I would contact the head of transportation and he would tell me the condition of the roads, especially the back winding ones. "Snow covered" was the usual report!!

   Many rural school districts in Maine have  roads to travel that may or may not be plowed early in the day, and when you have to consider about 1000 miles of travel per day for the bus fleet, is it worth the risk.

   One thing I tried to avoid was to be the only district in the area either open or closed. So... a quick call to the surrounding school districts and by 5:30 AM the decision was made, and usually the  group would be in unanimous agreement.

   The decision to cancel school for the day often created a hardship for parents and day care programs, since in most cases, although schools may have been closed, many parents still needed to go to work. What to do with the children? I am sure that is still a major concern some 25 years later, maybe even a greater concern today as more families have both parents needing to go to work.

   And opening school but then having the storm turn ugly around 9:30 AM and deciding to have an early release was even more concerning, knowing that some children might be going home to a cold and empty house, although that was not uncommon, even in good weather.. The rule of thumb was to always dismiss the high school kids first. Like... they'll take care of their younger brothers and sisters...right!

   Several weeks ago, perhaps one of the storms before the mid-winter vacation, a local television station reporter interviewed several parents, several very 'frustrated' parents, because of the school closing.

   While one mother spoke about the safety of getting the children to and from school, her frustration being with the weather, the other mother was extremely upset because....her daughter was missing out on learning and now would be far behind the other kids in her class! To be honest, I am not sure I understand the logic here. If all the children are out of school at the same time …...

   She went on to say that the reason the “administration” closes school is to give the teachers a day or two off and they already  had three days and didn't need another one.

   What some don't understand is that state law requires school districts to have at least  175 student days of school each year. Many districts build 'storm days' into their school calendars, usually three or four, just in case there are storms making travel unsafe. If they don't use the 'storm days', the kids get out a few days earlier than the last day of school marked on the school calendar and  everyone cheers. But if they use all the days and need to add a few more, the children continue to attend school until they meet the 175 day requirement, even if it is well into June.

   To be honest, I am not sure who or where the significance of the 175 began. It may have been the same person who determined  the school year should be based upon the farming and growing season. For me, the assumption with this thinking implies that all kids only need  175 days to learn what is being taught for the year and that learning doesn't take place during the summer months.

   But what we have learned over time is that children learn in different ways and at different rates and for some, it takes a bit longer, while for others, it may take a bit less time, maybe only 161 days. What happens the other 14 days. And for the child who may need 187 days to learn how to do the math problems, each year he or she falls farther behind the others.

   For the mother upset that her child was missing important time because of the snow...she may have been on to something here but didn't know it.

   And whether(weather) Al Roker is involved or not, the decision to cancel school because of the weather was, and remains, one that is not as easy at it appears. In a somewhat twisted way, it is comforting to know that ”some things never change” especially when it come to predicting the weather and calling off school because of the storm.

PS. On snowy days, my phone would start ringing around 5 o’clock. The calls were from my daughters’ friends, asking to speak to either of them. At 5 in the morning? “Has your Dad called off school yet?” Most of the time, Jessica and Amity were still asleep.