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I heard last night that some Chicago area schools were going to either open late or close entirely due to cold temperatures. The temp was expected to be about -3F.
This started a discussion on whether schools should close for this type of temperature. What do you think?
Edit To Add: I am assuming it is an otherwise nice day. No blizzard, whiteout or otherwise unsafe driving conditions.
The Chicago situation is a bit unique. Many kids take public transportation to school and many go to schools far away from their homes without school bus transportation (magnet schools, charter schools, etc.). The schools themselves may be old and the heating plants may not work well. There are many kids in poor neighborhoods who walk to school and many who don't have appropriate outerwear. A friend and I used to supply the first graders in her class with mittens and hats because they often had none. Many of those children had winter jackets that were inadequate for the temperature as well.
If the temperature is much colder than the region usually experiences and the schools can't keep the buildings warm enough, it makes sense to close.
Yeah-I agree if the schools can't keep the buildings comfortably warm. I'm guessing Chicago area schools have suitable climate control. Is 0 that far outside the norm for Chicago winters?
It has less to do with air temperature and more to do with windchill. Even if kids are being bused to school, they may have to wait outdoors at a bus stop for a considerable amount of time. In my neighborhood, most kids walk to school.
That being said, we are considerably colder than Chicago this morning and our public schools are open.
Yeah-I agree if the schools can't keep the buildings comfortably warm. I'm guessing Chicago area schools have suitable climate control. Is 0 that far outside the norm for Chicago winters?
Believe it or not, 0 is low for winter in Chicago. Also, the wind off the Lake can make for frigid wind chills as well. Chicago also does not get as much snow as people think they do. Note that the *el* and the metra (especially the electric metra) are affected by these temperatures.
This February is on track to be the fifth-coldest on record in Chicago, according to the weather service. The coldest February in Chicago was in 1875, when the mean temperature was 14.6 degrees, according to weather service records. The average temperature so far this February is 16.9 degrees, Seeley said. (February 2014′s average temperature of 17.3 degrees made it the ninth-coldest on record.)
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In such brutal weather, frostbite can set in to exposed skin within minutes.
I heard last night that some Chicago area schools were going to either open late or close entirely due to cold temperatures. The temp was expected to be about -3F.
This started a discussion on whether schools should close for this type of temperature. What do you think?
It depends geographically... Here, absolutely not. One of my nephews who goes to a private school had to go to school in -50F(with windchill).
Public schools are one thing when people have to stand outside to wait for a bus, while private schools that do not offer buses have no excuse. As I said it depends on the visibility and weather conditions, the nature of the school, the geographical location, etc. If schools don't have heating then that's definitely understandable.
They should leave the decisions to the judgment of the school.
Believe it or not, 0 is low for winter in Chicago. Also, the wind off the Lake can make for frigid wind chills as well. Chicago also does not get as much snow as people think they do. Note that the *el* and the metra (especially the electric metra) are affected by these temperatures.
That doesn't seem so far out from the norm that schools can't provide comfortably warm classrooms.
I could see closing/delaying schools if the city bus system has been impacted. I understand the schools use that for transportation too.
Windchill and frostbite are of course a concern while children wait for the bus. This can be prevented by parents driving the kid to school, or going with the kid to the bus stop-and making sure they are adequately dressed. The parents can be minorly inconvenienced by doing this, or majorly inconvenienced by having to spend the entire day at home due to school closure.
Closing schools for temps that aren't that far out of the norm surprises me. I recall my school closing due to weather once. It was -65f out, not including windchill. The school couldn't heat the boiler enough to warm the rooms adequately for comfort. The governor had declared the entire area a disaster area.
It depends geographically... Here, absolutely not. One of my nephews who goes to a private school had to go to school in -50F(with windchill).
Public schools are one thing when people have to stand outside to wait for a bus, while private schools that do not offer buses have no excuse. As I said it depends on the visibility and weather conditions, the nature of the school, the geographical location, etc. If schools don't have heating then that's definitely understandable.
They should leave the decisions to the judgment of the school.
I agree that other conditions should impact the decision. White outs and blizzards seem far more dangerous to me than just cold weather.
For the purposes of my poll I was assuming a nice, but cold day. No blizzard or white out conditions. Driving generally safe.
We've had numerous delays this year and last year because of bitter cold weather. I don't have a problem with this because we have a high proportion of walking students. What I do take issue with is the fact that the school won't have the building open for early arrivals. I understand we live in a sue-happy paranoid culture but it drives me crazy to see adults standing around in a warm building while little ones shiver and freeze outside.
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