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My understanding is that in extreme cold temperatures starting the buses is not the main issue, but the diesel fuel can still gel while the bus is operational causing it to stall and not restart.
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School buses, which nowadays run mostly on diesel fuel, have glow plugs to heat fuel up near the injectors just before starting and block heaters to keep the overall engine warm. But problems still can occur. Diesel fuel can turn into a gel when it gets cold and not go through the injectors. And that could happen after a bus is on the roads as cold outside air rushes past a fuel tank and potentially gels the fuel, although diesel sold in the winter is thinner than the summer and treatments are available for cold weather.
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“We put anti-gel in the fuel, so we try to not let them gel up. But in these extreme temperatures, sometimes the fuel will gel anyway.” The folks at Propst say five degrees is their threshold. Anything colder than that and plugging the buses in to heat them up won’t help. So, a whole week of those temperatures makes for a lot of extra work.
My understanding is that in extreme cold temperatures starting the buses is not the main issue, but the diesel fuel can still gel while the bus is operational causing it to stall and not restart.
The poor are already often well behind their peers in education and you want to hold them back even more? Imagine half the class being a day behind while the other half of the class is caught up. Unplanned days off already screw things up, this would just compound problems. Much better to cancel for everyone then have a teacher have two groups in the same class at different positions in the lesson plans.
So everyone should be held back for the sake of the few that would legitimately need to miss class on a cold day? Do you also advocate closing the school for the flu?
Getting behind by a day or two usually isn't much of an issue for kids. I've pulled my kids from school for a week. Their grades were unaffected.
So everyone should be held back for the sake of the few that would legitimately need to miss class on a cold day? Do you also advocate closing the school for the flu?
Getting behind by a day or two usually isn't much of an issue for kids. I've pulled my kids from school for a week. Their grades were unaffected.
HUGE difference between one or two students being out and half or more of the class being out. For a lot of poor urban districts the reality is that the majority of students have to walk. It wouldn't be just a few students missing out. We're not talking about the areas where every parent has a car or all the walkers live within a half mile of the school and you might have 3 students in a 30 student classroom miss out. We're talking 15-20 missing out in a class of 30. Heck even the office I work for has done something like this when icy roads are a problem. If there's just a few impacted things go on like normal, when the majority of workers were at risk the COO just sent an email out saying to nor worry about coming in on time, just to delay til 10 am if possible. And that's for an office where a lot of people are doing different things and don't need to constantly be at the same point in work.
I looked it up, it seems there's no standard for winter fuel in the US so the kind they use might not be the right kind. You can get Arctic fuel for Arctic conditions so definitely there is winter diesel that'll work in the US.
HUGE difference between one or two students being out and half or more of the class being out. For a lot of poor urban districts the reality is that the majority of students have to walk. It wouldn't be just a few students missing out. We're not talking about the areas where every parent has a car or all the walkers live within a half mile of the school and you might have 3 students in a 30 student classroom miss out. We're talking 15-20 missing out in a class of 30. Heck even the office I work for has done something like this when icy roads are a problem. If there's just a few impacted things go on like normal, when the majority of workers were at risk the COO just sent an email out saying to nor worry about coming in on time, just to delay til 10 am if possible. And that's for an office where a lot of people are doing different things and don't need to constantly be at the same point in work.
So, since the op was general, percentage of students likely to miss school is something to be considered.
Many kids could walk at zero degrees.
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