Weather

[Sea Ray]

I was discussing the larger issue of why Ohio closes more per the Atlantic article you posted. They close more because road conditions are worse in Ohio because of slippery ice and less robust infrastructure for dealing with the cold and snow.

If you are only worried about Friday then it's a pretty boring conversation. I'm sure they closed because they probably have a rule that they close under a certain temp.

Then you'd be wrong. Most schools don't have such a rule and one that does, Mason, its threshold wasn't reached. They say in their guidelines that they will close when wind chills go to -20 F. It didn't reach that here on Friday. Such a policy is so rare it made the Wash Post:

And in Ohio, the Mason City Schools district has set specific temperature guidelines, published on its website:

Closing for Cold Weather
Mason City Schools will close on days when the temperature and/or wind chill are below -20ºF to -25ºF. Temperatures with wind chills in this range are considered dangerously cold if exposure is over 10-15 minutes. With students walking to school and waiting at bus stops, we consider this extreme cold a safety issue.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.6df5b84cffa8

My point in all of this is what's changed? We didn't used to close when temps hit zero. Were we not concerned about student safety back then? I doubt that.

[BernieCarbo]

It has more to do with attendance than anything. The roads are not any more slippery here than anywhere else, but road maintenance is terrible for whatever reason (I wish the plow drivers would go to snow plowing school). But the reality of the situation is that even when the roads are clear and the temps dip to zero, chaos ensues and there are going to be a bunch of teachers who call in and parents with dead batteries who are going to bring their kids two hours late. Why bother going through that? Just make up the day at the end of the year when the weather is nice.

[Redsfaithful]

Then you'd be wrong. Most schools don't have such a rule and one that does, Mason, its threshold wasn't reached. They say in their guidelines that they will close when wind chills go to -20 F. It didn't reach that here on Friday. Such a policy is so rare it made the Wash Post:



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.6df5b84cffa8

My point in all of this is what's changed? We didn't used to close when temps hit zero. Were we not concerned about student safety back then? I doubt that.

We have a cold weather policy here in Bexley:

Generally schools may be closed when air temperatures measured at Port Columbus weather station reach minus 15 degrees F or minus 22 degree F wind chill.

I would be surprised if it's really that uncommon.

Ultimately it's up to a district's superintendent. You should call them and ask why they are so much softer than when you were a kid in the 60's and report back.

[Redsfaithful]

It has more to do with attendance than anything. The roads are not any more slippery here than anywhere else, but road maintenance is terrible for whatever reason (I wish the plow drivers would go to snow plowing school). But the reality of the situation is that even when the roads are clear and the temps dip to zero, chaos ensues and there are going to be a bunch of teachers who call in and parents with dead batteries who are going to bring their kids two hours late. Why bother going through that? Just make up the day at the end of the year when the weather is nice.

Disagree on the roads, mostly because of infrastructure - you can drill down into how many plows a city has (I did this once and found that Columbus way, way under invests in snow removal compared to similar sized cities with similar climates) and how much is spent and obviously a place like Minnesota invests much heavier (out of necessity.)

Agree with the rest of your post, most years schools have unused weather calamity days, so I don't know why the outcry. Odds are this day off won't even need to be made up unless we get a big snowstorm.

[BernieCarbo]

I know they are ill-equipped to handle snow, although I don't understand why. It snows every year. Plus, they do a terrible job with what they have. So many times I've followed a snow plow and they leave several inches of snow on the roads. In NH, they would drop the plow until it looked like an arc welder, but at least the roads were clear.

Michigan is even worse. Basically they don't plow until the snow stops, and they just wait for the snow to melt on the side roads.

[RedTeamGo!]

Then you'd be wrong. Most schools don't have such a rule and one that does, Mason, its threshold wasn't reached. They say in their guidelines that they will close when wind chills go to -20 F. It didn't reach that here on Friday. Such a policy is so rare it made the Wash Post:



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...=.6df5b84cffa8

My point in all of this is what's changed? We didn't used to close when temps hit zero. Were we not concerned about student safety back then? I doubt that.

I agree, we are raising a bunch of wussies and it will be the downfall of society.

[Redsfaithful]

I agree, we are raising a bunch of wussies and it will be the downfall of society.

The more I see baby boomers in action, the more I think the entire generation had enough lead poisoning, in aggregate, to explain so much of how the world has worked for the past four decades. We know lead increases violence, which makes me wonder if it decreases empathy. And you'd have to have a lack of empathy to get upset that kids get a day off of school when temps are sub-zero, but it's a common complaint when talking about how soft kids are these days.

[medford]

My point in all of this is what's changed? We didn't used to close when temps hit zero. Were we not concerned about student safety back then? I doubt that.

If I had to guess (and its only a guess) is that society is much more litigious today, than it was 30 years ago. The State of Ohio builds 5 days into the required number of school days that can be canceled for inclement weather, or other issues (like the power goes out). They can be increased (I think by the governor) if there is a particularly large stretch of beyond their control that forces more closures than you would expect (ie the hurricane force winds that swept thru the area 9 years ago and lead to week long power outages in some areas). If I was in charge, I'd stick on the side of caution as well if it was early January and I had not used any of my 5 days as well; better safe than sorry.

And as much as I hate them personally (mainly because I hate driving in snow) there is a certain charm in my kids getting all excited when they get a snow day. It helps that my wife is a teacher and I/we don't have to scramble to find alternate arrangements for our 3 kids when they do come. Doesn't help with the snow roads getting myself to work, but Ohio.

[Sea Ray]

If I had to guess (and its only a guess) is that society is much more litigious today, than it was 30 years ago. The State of Ohio builds 5 days into the required number of school days that can be canceled for inclement weather, or other issues (like the power goes out). They can be increased (I think by the governor) if there is a particularly large stretch of beyond their control that forces more closures than you would expect (ie the hurricane force winds that swept thru the area 9 years ago and lead to week long power outages in some areas). If I was in charge, I'd stick on the side of caution as well if it was early January and I had not used any of my 5 days as well; better safe than sorry.

And as much as I hate them personally (mainly because I hate driving in snow) there is a certain charm in my kids getting all excited when they get a snow day. It helps that my wife is a teacher and I/we don't have to scramble to find alternate arrangements for our 3 kids when they do come. Doesn't help with the snow roads getting myself to work, but Ohio.

A couple years ago they changed from calamity days to hours. In most cases this gives the school a lot more than 5 days. The standard is a mere 1001 hours. Most districts have a schedule that's about 180 days. 7 hours per day= 1260 hours. That leaves 259 hours divided by 7= 37 snow days!

http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Fin...hool-Schedules

[westofyou]

The more I see baby boomers in action, the more I think the entire generation had enough lead poisoning, in aggregate, to explain so much of how the world has worked for the past four decades. We know lead increases violence, which makes me wonder if it decreases empathy. And you'd have to have a lack of empathy to get upset that kids get a day off of school when temps are sub-zero, but it's a common complaint when talking about how soft kids are these days.

The biggest gripes I see are because both parents work now more often than not, thus a louder din when it is enacted. But hey... the kids that wear shorts on cold as hell days make me scratch my head more than snow days

[medford]

Each school district is a bit different, I assume, since its up them as your link stated. My school district, the high school goes for 7 hours per day, however, lunch is not allowed to be included as part of the required 1001 hours. I don't know how long lunch is at my local high school, but if you assume an hour, that is 6 hours a day or 1080 hours a year, leaving roughly 13 calamity days a year. However, our school district also has a certain amount of scheduled "2 hour delays" where the teachers have to go in for conferences or seminars, so that takes some of that time out of it.

There may be other periods of that 7 hour block that doesn't get included (like home room, study hall, time b/w classes for kids to get from one room to the next, etc..) I don't know, but I seriously doubt any district is going 37 days over the minimum amount required. Either way, under the old system, schools rarely (at least in this part of Ohio) used their full 5 days. In my 12 years of education prior to college, I can only recall 1 time were there was talk that we'd have to extend the school year a day if we had another poor weather event. Recently, there were a handful of districts near my house that had to have kids show up on a previously scheduled day off due to exceeding their calamity days (or perhaps hours). IIRC, it was the districts that took a day off of school on a day similar to today, but not quite as bad. Those that didn't take that day off, didn't have to make up time, while those that did, did. Typically, aside from mechanical issues, most schools in any given area get similar calamity days as the weather isn't that localized. I doubt the schedules of any one school district is all that fundamentally different than another that would allow for 37 days of building up calamity time. They may shift in the start/end of school, add in a fall break, take out a spring break, etc.. but most start around the same time, and end around the same time. Those that start a week earlier, get out a week earlier.

[Sea Ray]

It was just a thumb nail sketch. Our district has 1 hr early release on Wednesdays and a half hour lunch. Figuring that into it we're down to 17 days. My point is that for the most part they are in much better shape than the old system of 5 days

[cumberlandreds]

My son told the story that his teacher shared with the students the other day. The teacher grew up in S. Carolina, where school would close with a forecast for snow. He moved to MT, where is wife was from. On a November day, it snowed 10", so he turned on the radio to hear about school closings. He was still wearing his PJ's and frustrated the radio host was not reporting anything, so he turned to the TV, where he expected to see the closings zip across the bottom of his screen. At 7:45 he called a colleague and asked why there weren't any announcements about school closings, only to learn "schools never close here for weather." Had had 5 minutes to get dressed and drive 10 minutes to school, making it just before first bell.

I do remember a time in the late 80's (89?), where temps hit -50 without the windchill and -95 with the windchill. ALL schools, including universities, closed that entire week. It was like a graveyard of cars with cracked radiators and assorted other problems. I stayed inside the whole week with a female friend, so the weather didn't bother me a bit.

That had to be December of 89. I was living in Lexington Kentucky then. We had a week of below zero temps. One night the wind chill got to 40 below. That has been the coldest I have ever been. Needless to say my car wouldn't start the next morning. Luckily my dad was coming to Lexington to go to some ball games with me and he boosted me off and bought me a new battery to boot.

Winds chills have been below zero all the past weekend in the DC area. Schools were off the last two days last week and today for some ice that is now falling. It could be adventure getting home from work today.

[Redsfaithful]

The biggest gripes I see are because both parents work now more often than not, thus a louder din when it is enacted. But hey... the kids that wear shorts on cold as hell days make me scratch my head more than snow days

I see that too, but those are gen-X and millennials, Boomers should be past their child rearing days but they still have Opinions

[Boston Red]

Boomers should be past their child rearing days but they still have Opinions

The horror