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.
Schools should only be closed if the transportation to them is going to be dangerous, i.e. blizzard conditions, roads impassible or too icy to be safe.
Here they do not have snow days in the schools schedule.
In the early morning before time to run the busses, they send out drivers to check to see if there is a reason the busses cannot run to pick up the children. We are talking Montana where we do have winter. Here where I live we do not have the heavy snow they had in the east this year, but it does get cold.
I think that most schools should close when weather temperatures fall below 0F.
Why?
1) Older schools with a boiler system struggle to keep the temperatures above 60F. When you have a building that is 60F at best, there will be several rooms that are significantly colder.
2) Children relying on walking to school and/or waiting for city buses are exposed to freezing temperatures. Buses are often late during inclement weather and the like. Why is it necessary to hold school on those days.
3) Most states require 180 school days. If you have 10 snow days, extend the school year a couple of weeks. There will not be snow in June, even in Chicago.
85% of Chicago students live in poverty. Maybe in a FEW schools, but not district wide.
We first retired to St George Utah. Think Las Vegas (just down the highway) for weather. Hot. One day the newspaper headline said:
Elementary School Closed Due To Snow.
We had a half inch of snow at about 10a.m. What the story went on to say, when it started to lay snow down, they closed down the elementary school so the kids could go out and play in the snow, as most of them had never seen snow. Half an hour later the snow had all bee played with and melted, so they called them back into the classroom and school was officially back in session.
Many years ago we lived in the Silicon Valley on the Saratoga Border. One day our dog was fussing and my wife looked outside at 3:30a.m. She woke me up and we got the kids up so they could see snow, as it never snowed in the San Jose Area. It was a real freak snow and snowed about 3 inches. The kids started calling their friends on the phone, and angry parents would ask why they were calling and when they found out it was snowing they got the kids up. Everyone on the street turned on their outdoor lights, and the kids gathered to play in the snow at 4a.m. Had to do it while it was snowing as the snow would melt fast and was gone by 5:30a.m. At 5:30 all of the kids on that street came to our house for hot chocolate to warm up. My 5 kids into their late 50s and 60s, never forgot that event and loved to look at the pictures we took of them playing in the snow at night.
In my district it means more kids walk or ride with parents. I live in a wealthy county, relatively. Most of our students can get a ride. That isn't the case in a lot of other places, and it isn't the case for all students.
This entire thread was flawed from the beginning. The OP asked a closed ended, general question when she had one specific day in one specific location in mind. The day in question was -30 with wind chill. That is potentially harmful, if not deadly, whether it is caused by climate change or not.
All that can be said about this has already been said. The answer to the OP's question is "sometimes." If we're talking about her specific friend, in Chicago, on a -30 day, the answer is "yes." If the schools are open, people will try to get there. Giving them excused absences doesn't completely fix the problem.
Obviously we live in different districts. I live in a relatively poor county that runs the gamut from middle class to urban poor to rural poor. I think all 4 public school districts in my county were wrong for closing schools on Feb 20, 2015 for "Cold weather". Parents can decide for themselves whether to send their kids out.
The OP asked "0F or below". Obviously "or below" includes everything down to -34F which is the coldest I've ever seen here in Pennsylvania (January 1994). In my opinion a 2-hour delay is OK in most cases but closing is not, in most cases.
Edit: One more thing. I am talking about my own district. I don't know what it's like in Chicago or Florida when it comes to handling cold weather and what particular challenges they face. I live in an area with ski resorts and roads named "Snow Hill Road," etc, so you would think people could handle cold weather.
Last edited by jtab4994; 03-01-2015 at 07:39 AM..
Reason: Addition
Schools should close when temperatures drop significantly below the norm for a certain area.
Where I live (southern Minnesota) we have an average of about 25 days/winter with lows below 0F. Schools could not function if they cancelled classes every time the temperature got that cold. Is it really a surprise to you that there are places where such temperatures are routine?
School closures should not be dictated by a particular temperature (or, for that matter, a particular snowfall amount) but by measurements that fall so far out of the norm for a specific area that that they are very difficult for that area to accomodate. This seems rather obvious.
So, 0F might be the threshold for closing schools in Atlanta, whereas it might be -10F in St. Louis, -20F in Minneapolis, -30F in Winnipeg, and so forth.
Or maybe we should rethink the whole school year. Why not close down for January and February and go to school during the summer months?
Personally, in many districts, they close as the school buses are unable to safely navigate the streets.
I'm for year around school.
Most year around school calendars have 9 week quarters with three week breaks in between each. I think that is a much more effective way to run the school year for numerous reasons.
Most year around school calendars have 9 week quarters with three week breaks in between each. I think that is a much more effective way to run the school year for numerous reasons.
I have had similar thoughts. The school year was originally designed around an agricultural schedule. Kids were off in the summers to work the fields. Plainly, no longer the case.
That said, being open in the summer would be more problematic than winter for schools in my area. July and August would be very uncomfortable. Very few have any kind of AC.
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.
