Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
First of all, anyone who posts 13 times in a row on the same basic topic needs to be taken with a HUGE grain of salt.
Beyond that, the problem starts with the school buses on truly cold mornings. I'm no expert on buses, but I know that it's more common for school buses to have trouble starting on excessively cold mornings. And when they don't start, then you have kids out waiting for a bus in extremely cold temperatures...a bus that may never come.
Then you have the school itself. You can talk you want about how wonderful the school HVAC system should be, but cheap taxpayers want everything on the cheap, and the HVAC systems are usually installed by the lowest bidder. When a whole section of a school isn't getting sufficient heat, I don't have any good solutions as to what to do with a few hundred kids and no place to put them.
If there's ice and snow to take care of...well, sorry, but my budget (as a school principal) had zero funds for calling in custodians early to take care of plowing and de-icing sidewalks, and if there was much snow at all, the country got around to plowing our parking lots AFTER all the streets were fully taken care of.
Are school systems sometimes overly cautious? Yes. But then again, we're talking about the need to take care of children from below the age of 5 on up, and nothing is more important than their safety. And speaking of that, when there is significant snow, sidewalks are often not cleared, meaning that you have kids walking to school in the street, or standing in the street waiting for the school bus. So being extra careful with children who don't always the best common sense is just common sense.
My parents only owned really old cars growing up and if they went out just 10 minutes early to warm up the car, they could start it in air temperatures in the negatives.
Buses that transport 50 children a day should have better engines than the patchwork rides we had.
Also, if the buses can't start at all, what changes between the normal start time and 2 hours later?
Regarding insufficient heat, aren't the children wearing coats to school? They can simply leave their coats on during class! Oh god, what a controversial idea!
The first poster mentioned no snow/ice, but if that was a factor, you should hire custodians who would go in early to take care of plowing and deicing sidewalks because that is their area to contribute and they should do whatever it takes to make it right.
I'm fine with Grades PreK to 3 being overly cautious, but Grades 4+ need to suck it up and deal with it. Kids/adults CAN become used to the cold if they continue to expose themselves in it. If you baby them forever, we get the college kids who complain when a window is opened at 72 degrees. I feel dumber just being exposed to them.
If sidewalks are not cleared, the kids should just walk through the snow. Snow itself is not dangerous. Ice is, but ice is extremely thin. No one mistakes snow for ice. If there's more than a coating of wintry stuff, it's not ice. It's snow. Walking on snow is like walking on sand. I'm sure you can fall if you mess around, but you can fall on concrete in perfect weather if you mess around, so there's no added danger with the snow.
Think about a large system such as mine which now has over 1,600 buses. We don't delay due to cold very often (not even annually), but when the temperatures drop into the single digits they do have trouble getting them started. There are a couple of things that compound the issue. One is that buses are parked all over the county, so it is basically impossible for maintenance people to troubleshoot quickly. A second is that the budget is not allowing the school board to update the fleet as they should.
Additionally, the school system’s bus fleet is not only getting older — by the 2018-2019 school year more than 60 percent of the buses will be past the required replacement age — but the district has a hard time finding space to park them all. The school system only has 500 permanent parking spots. The remaining buses, the report says, are stored “at the pleasure of schools and communities.” That means school buses are kept at “ libraries, fire stations, commuter lots, HOA pool lots, drivers’ homes, and along public streets where possible.” Much of the report attributes the school system’s problems to a lack of funding for capital improvement projects.
How much could the school afford to pay per year to store the extra 1,100 buses?
Like if you had $11 million, you could pay $10,000 a year per bus to store it.
I'm sure some company would be willing to find a location for you.
How much could the school afford to pay per year to store the extra 1,100 buses?
Like if you had $11 million, you could pay $10,000 a year per bus to store it.
I'm sure some company would be willing to find a location for you.
Quote:
The first poster mentioned no snow/ice, but if that was a factor, you should hire custodians who would go in early to take care of plowing and deicing sidewalks because that is their area to contribute and they should do whatever it takes to make it right.
How much could they afford to pay for storage? Probably not much above what is already budgeted.
Space would also be an issue.
You seem to be very generous in what you think districts can spend.
Buses run on diesel fuel which don’t perform as well in extremely low temperatures. Often waiting a couple of hours for the temps to rise makes a difference. Schools really don’t want to start late or call a snow day. Superintendents have numerous points of data to consider before they make the call and they have to do it hours before school starts.
Buses run on diesel fuel which don’t perform as well in extremely low temperatures. Often waiting a couple of hours for the temps to rise makes a difference. Schools really don’t want to start late or call a snow day. Superintendents have numerous points of data to consider before they make the call and they have to do it hours before school starts.
What does this waiting 2 hours accomplish? The temperatures are the exact same 2 hours later.
There are, of course, other reasons that some districts do these delays. My district has a pretty firm policy of not doing that, which is why I find it hard to understand.
Out in MN it snowed like crazy yesterday. Traffic was ridiculous, I feel for anyone stuck in it and the plow drivers. People were getting stuck, cars stuck in driveways, I have to go out soon and see if I gotta try and dig my car out before work. The two hours helps get buses free, actually cut on due to the cold, and get the main roads plowed so it's actually not a suicide mission just to go to school.
We once had a priest in my hometown that was widely despised by the parishioners. They literally forced him out. In his last homily he said one thing that he had learned over the years was that "25% if the people are going to hate you, 25% of the people are going to love you, and the remaining 50% of the people aren't going to give a damn one way or another."
Any decision about late openings or closings are going to fall into a similar pattern. As a principal, I rarely felt sorry for the superintendent. They did get my sympathy for weather related decisions because it was a no-win decision, whichever way it went.
Out in MN it snowed like crazy yesterday. Traffic was ridiculous, I feel for anyone stuck in it and the plow drivers. People were getting stuck, cars stuck in driveways, I have to go out soon and see if I gotta try and dig my car out before work. The two hours helps get buses free, actually cut on due to the cold, and get the main roads plowed so it's actually not a suicide mission just to go to school.
(Groan) The OP is about cold, not snow.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phetaroi
We once had a priest in my hometown that was widely despised by the parishioners. They literally forced him out. In his last homily he said one thing that he had learned over the years was that "25% if the people are going to hate you, 25% of the people are going to love you, and the remaining 50% of the people aren't going to give a damn one way or another."
Any decision about late openings or closings are going to fall into a similar pattern. As a principal, I rarely felt sorry for the superintendent. They did get my sympathy for weather related decisions because it was a no-win decision, whichever way it went.
Yes, I've heard that joke before too.
I agree with your second para. One day a year or two ago, some districts in the Denver metro closed and some did not, for snow. Parents in all the districts were angry. Some in the districts that closed were angry because they said the weather wasn't *that* bad, they had to go to work, etc. Some in the open districts said it was unsafe for the kids to be going to school in the snow.
That's just laziness. Most cold is well forecasted 2+ weeks in advance.
That means no one checked the weather the ENTIRE break, even though their job revolves around it.
It's called break for a reason.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
