I can’t believe schools are closed again Wednesday. This is the 6th day my kids schools have been canceled due to weather in less than a month. At this rate they will be still going to school until the 4th of July to make up the days.
Same. I’m starting a new job next week, and I took this week off as “me time”. I love my kids, but I get very little me time, and I was looking forward to it!
Schools are going to have to reevaluate their calendars if they’re going to cancel like they have this year.
I would like to amend my previous comment in a previous thread about how it is fun to have school cancelled because now there will likely be too much snow to get my wheelhouse out and entertain the kids.
If anyone wants to plow a cul-de-sac on a metro lake let me know. Depth and/or presence of fish is irrelevant.
Yep, was holding out hope that our district would at least wait and see if it actually snowed before canceling because of snow, but nope. Just got the text.
Don’t make any plans for taking any family trips that week after your kids are supposed to get out of school. There’s going to be a very unpopular summer overtime period if this keeps up. We’re not out of February yet and since I just drew an A season turkey tag, it’s going to be still snowing in May.
Grouse
If anyone wants to plow a cul-de-sac on a metro lake let me know. Depth and/or presence of fish is irrelevant.
LOL!
Just curious about other school district policies. Around here in south/central WI, after the need to make up 2 or so days, they amend the school day and add minutes to each day ILO adding multiple days.
I know it’s been a while but I don’t recall our school ever canceling school the night before. It was always wake up and turn on WCCO to find out what’s going on.
I move snow for a school district and today for sure they got it right. I was blowing snow in parking lots for 4 hours,so the plows would have a place for it. Then had to run home so my wife could go to work and I could be at home with our kid. By the way are daycare center is 3 hours late and if they cancel we still pay at 200 a week.
Yup my kids schooled called at 10 last night.
I’m just going to shovel a little snow off my roof today
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There are a lot of factors that go into calling school and also on how to make up the time.
I get that calling before the weather is annoying when conditions dont get bad–but for a lot of families-making the necessary arrangements that come with having schools cancelled are much easier at 7-8pm the night before than at 6am the morning of.
My district is looking at shaving off of easter break and will address further time if we need to cancel.
Just keep tacking it on to the end of the year.
There are a lot of factors that go into calling school and also on how to make up the time.
Not to call you out but what are these factors and what has changed? I went to school in the 80’s and 90’s and had very few snow days ever. I recall a snow day would only happen if we had 10+ “ of snow and/or blizzard warnings were issued. When it snowed like this there were 2 hour delays and even then, I can’t remember more than one or two ever.
School busses are possibly the safest (fewest deaths, injuries, accidents, etc…) modes of transportation in this country. There was nothing about this snow that is any more risk than 1-2” of snow brings.
I highly doubt these factors are being followed. They are simply closing school out of fear of social media backlash. Whenever this is a factor, if you err on the side of caution you are never wrong. But yet it’s ok to cost families and businesses in our area million$ because of it.
Transportation is the big one. If you send busses out can you get the routes done in a timely fashion. in our dist the elem/middle/HS all start and end at different time and we share busses between all programs. If you get the kids to school will you be able to safely get them home? Temps sometimes come into play although other than a couple weeks ago-we would argue that kids are safer in school than left at home. Im not the person that calls school-but I can say, 1 snow day is nice- anymore than that its a pain. We only close as a last resort.
i live in a school district that almost got caught with the pants down so to speak. on a friday they waited almost to long to get out early. having kids over the weekend isnt a good thing. most schools lunch programs dont carry more the 1 maybe 2 days of food. out in the rural districts those county roads usually arent the first plowed.
i believe its all about liability and sue happy people. yea it frustrated me to, but i get it to a point!!!
Again, what’s changed? The weather certainly hasn’t.
They are simply closing school out of fear of social media backlash.
Well,,,,,,,,,,,, you certainly seem to have this all figured out. Next crisis please.
IDK–I was in school in the 80’s and 90’s too…I certainly didnt care what went into calling school. Each district has their own issues/policies–Honestly where I am–its not an issue. This year year…3 cancelled and 3 late starts. That is prob what we have had combined the previous 8 years. So Im sure the recent 3 weeks is making a relatively non-issue seem bigger than it really is.
My only point is-cancelling school is the absolute last resort–we don’t want to, nor do we do w/o considering the ramifications.
I’m just going to shovel a little snow off my roof today
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That’s what I felt like last night eelpout. 3 hours later it looked like my roof will be able to handle the next storm.
This winter has been weird in that first we had bitter cold that cancelled schools and now it’s snow storms. So far there has been only one day that I think was a bit of an over reaction when they cancelled school because the plows hadn’t been out. Wouldn’t want the kids waiting at the bus stops or walking to school when they can can be outside playing in the same snow. Oh well, it’s pretty nasty out there with about 75 yards visibility.
MSP shutdown the runways temporarily. 5 to 6″ reported in Chanhassen already. 7:30am hwy 212 out here in Carver Co. was partially plowed in the 4 lane areas; the two lane part was plowed east bound, I travel west bound and that wasn’t plowed in the two lane so that was interesting to say the least. Co-worker said gravel roads were even worse further out, couldn’t see road from ditch. Crappy driving conditions and urine poor visibility.
Again, what’s changed? The weather certainly hasn’t.
What changed is both parents working and daycare being involved. Back in the day when one parent worked nobody cared if school was called off. Today parents go in crisis mode if they need to line up daycare on short notice.
Add sue happy parents when little Johnny or Suzie gets a boo boo on school property and caution is what you get.
Cut MEA weekend for lost school time. Most teachers don’t do anything anyway.
Well,,,,,,,,,,,, you certainly seem to have this all figured out. Next crisis please.
If I’m asking questions I clearly don’t have it figured out. Please enlighten me.
No, not MEA! The weather is usually perfect for all kinds of fall activities. Feel free to cut the worthless spring break though! It’s usually still very much winter, and not yet spring and crappy outdoor conditions. Families go on vacation when they want throughout the year- not because it’s spring break. School teachers/families certainly don’t use the week for much travel either becauses the costs to go anywhere in late march/early april are so inflated. Or cancel all of the BS staff pro dev days the rest of the year to make up the time.
The problem is younger parents have very little PTO and now they need to take time off without pay to stay home in weather that has not historically caused any real safety concerns over the past 3 decades.
Companies are also struggling to keep operations moving because employees have to stay home and their vendors are unable to conduct business. I’ve seen all three sides of this first hand.
There was 1” of snow on the roads this morning and is supposed to taper off in the afternoon. By the time school is out most of the major road will be clear.
If the argument is a few late busses, that’s bs. There were always late busses than never disrupted classes.
I agree with most of what you said Dutch except the parents working. Where I grew up I knew of very few stay at home parents. I thought it was odd for a parent to salary home. In fact, I see and know of many more now than I ever have.
Again, what’s changed? The weather certainly hasn’t.
More lawyers. Even though the chance of an issue is low, if something happens now someone will be paying millions. Years ago that wasn’t much of a concern.
What changed is both parents working and daycare being involved. Back in the day when one parent worked nobody cared if school was called off. Today parents go in crisis mode if they need to line up daycare on short notice.
Add sue happy parents when little Johnny or Suzie gets a boo boo on school property and caution is what you get.
I was thinking similarly on both points. Many homes need childcare arrangements and the earlier they know, the better.
And yeah, people get outraged at everything nowadays (look at the threads on this site for a few examples) and are ready to crucify anyone once they have 20/20 hindsight. So if you’re a school, would you rather be crucified for having a few school days in June, or crucified because a school bus slid off the roads with a bunch of little kids on it?
When I went to school, the teachers had to live in the district to teach there. We very, very seldom saw a snow day and even then it had to be one doozy of a storm to close the schools. And buses served only those kids who lived a mile or more from the school. Teachers today can live 40 miles away and I think the closing have as much to do with the teachers getting stranded as it does with kids being in any sort of jeopardy. Maybe we need to go back to those requirements.
I haven’t even opened a garage door yet. According to the weather map I use I think we have maybe an hour of this crap then clearing. Or at least the snow stopping. I took advantage of the great day yesterday to put a new drive wheel in the snow blower. I want the belts to go along with the drive wheel but they were out so I ordered them. Neither the belts or the wheel are hard to install and everything up till yesterday was the original stuff and we bought the blower used 12 years ago. The forward travel was starting to stutter so it was time.
The snow plows went by at about 45 miles an hour an hour ago and I watched as a wave of snow went over that piled on the curb and went well up into our lawn. Of course I have sidewalk between the street and the lawn, so that should be a fun one to blow out.
I don’t know about ya’ll but I was plenty happy with the brown and mud we had back in January. This white schnit sucks.
Winter 96/97, western MN. We had maybe 6 or 7 full days of school in a 4 week stretch starting sometime in January leading into February. Anytime the wind sneezed, the county/township roads (already down to 1 lane in many areas) would drift shut. 2 hour late starts were the norm, and if we did get to school and the wind picked up, 2 hour early outs were a given. Spent a lot of nights at my grand parents “in town” because we couldn’t get to our farm even with 4×4. some days there were more snowmobiles than vehicles in the high school parking lot.
While this winter has been “bad” for many, to me it just seems like “what normal used to be.”
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>biggill wrote:</div>
Again, what’s changed? The weather certainly hasn’t.What changed is both parents working and daycare being involved. Back in the day when one parent worked nobody cared if school was called off. Today parents go in crisis mode if they need to line up daycare on short notice.
Add sue happy parents when little Johnny or Suzie gets a boo boo on school property and caution is what you get.
Very well said. Lining up daycare at 6am is certainly a crisis. You better hope grandma has the cellphone turned on or there’s a daycare close-by that has openings and doesn’t cost half a day’s pay.
The problem is younger parents have very little PTO and now they need to take time off without pay to stay home.
I agree with most of what you said Dutch except the parents working. Where I grew up I knew of very few stay at home parents. I thought it was odd for a parent to salary home. In fact, I see and know of many more now than I ever have.
I see a lot more of the former than the latter. I actually can’t think of any stay at home parents off the top of my head. They’re all plugging away with their careers trying to afford the high cost of living with children.
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