Oh the weather outside is frightful!

When I grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, snow was a big deal.  While Albuquerque is a mile high – we always considered Albuquerque, not Denver, the Mile High City – winters were typically cold but dry.  The Sandia Mountains, which frame the city on its eastern side, always had snow in the winter but it was rare in the city itself.

Growing up, I can recall only a handful of days when school was cancelled because of the snow.  Most Michiganians would chuckle at the decision making process that was used.  If Albuquerque had more than an inch of snow, school was usually postponed or cancelled. 

Why?  Albuquerque had no snow removal equipment or system.  Well, that is not completely accurate.  There was a system.  It was called the “waiting for it to warm up” system.  If there was snow, the city’s process for removal was to wait for it to warm up.

Here in Michigan, and in Grand Ledge specifically, we have to deal with snow on a regular basis.  Cancelling a day of school or delaying school for two hours is a decision that is not made lightly.  What is considered when we cancel or delay school because of the weather?

First, and most important, we consider the safety of our students.  Will our students be safe as they wait for buses, ride to school with their parents or on a bus, or walk to school. 

Cold weather is a factor, but this is Michigan.  It is going to get cold.  If the temperature or wind chills are below minus 20 we will consider cancelling or delaying school.  We have a wind chill temperature index from NOAA that we rely on to help us calculate how cold the air feels on human skin. 

This chart includes a frostbite indicator, showing the points where temperature, wind speed, and exposure will produce frostbite on humans.  This chart gives us an estimate of the time it would take for a person who is outside to be in danger of getting frostbite. 

We know that many of our students have to walk to bus stops or walk to school.  We consult this wind chill chart to make sure that students who are outside waiting or walking will not be placed in a dangerous situation.

We also consider the safety of our students as they wait for buses to arrive.  Are the roads that our students wait on safe?  This week with the ice and cold temperatures many of our roads were dangerous.  Having students stand by the side of a road that is ice covered may expose them to danger.  Delaying school allows traffic to clear and roads to be less hazardous.   

After the safety of our students, we consider the delay that snow will cause.  Our buses can maneuver in almost anything.  They will rarely get stuck.  But that is not true for cars.  There are many times when our buses could continue a route but a car is stuck and they cannot get around it.  If we delay for two hours it usually allows for most of the traffic to get out of the way and makes it easier for buses to run their routes on time.

Snow also causes problems on some of the country roads that our buses travel.  Many of these roads are not plowed and end up being one lane.  While our buses can usually travel these roads it is not unusual for cars to get stuck.  When this happens in front of a bus the bus is then put in a difficult situation.  It can attempt to go around the car, but often it is hard to see where the road ends and the ditch starts.  Or the bus can back up, which is a very difficult thing to do under normal circumstances.  Put forty to sixty students on the bus and backing up becomes very challenging.

Snow has become more of a problem in the past couple of years as cities and counties try to cut costs by reducing when and how much they plow.  I can sympathize with the cities, townships, and counties as they work to manage their budgets.  What it means for us is that roads are often not ready first thing in the morning like they used to be.

It is important to know that we have someone who drives the roads in the morning.  We are not just guessing that the roads are bad or that the snow is deep.  We know the conditions because someone has been on the road.

Getting students and staff to school safely and in a timely manner is important.  We are cautious.  When you receive that early morning wake up call that lets you know that school is cancelled or delayed I apologize for the inconvenience that it causes.  However, the decision was not made lightly and it was done for what I consider to be good reasons.