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When Should School Close Due to Weather (Or, How I Learned to Love a Polar Vortex)?
Now in my mid-thirties, I feel quite the old crank telling my kids that they don’t know what it was like for me growing up. Heck, I had to rewind my movies when I was done watching them, roll down my car window manually, and — while waiting for the kiddy cocktail at the restaurant — had to make do with crayons and a Xeroxed placemat rather than the latest cellular-based gaming device.
Well, I have another one to add to the list: school closings. In Chicago, we are on our second day in a row of school being closed due to “unforeseen cold weather.” Come on. I’ve lived in Chicago most of my life and — in spite of all the climate models — we generally experience pretty cold weather this time of the season.
Last year, my kids had school closings on four days, all due to the cold. Back in the days of 2014 they called it a “Polar Vortex.” Whatever happened to that term, anyway? I have not heard it mentioned this year and I think it sounds like a great cover, though it’s refreshing for it to just be cold again in January, excuses or no. When I was a kid, I remember school closing due to the bus not being able to drive through the snow. That was about it. They called it a “snow day,” which sounds so old-fashioned now. Why can’t the kids go to school in the cold? It’s not like classes are outside.
In my young old age, I’m starting to think that school should only be cancelled if the buses cannot travel. I’m not suggesting we go back to the days when Teddy Roosevelt trudged through several feet of snow during the blizzard of 1888 just to keep an appointment with the New York Historical Society while other New Yorkers were scavenging for food, but there needs to be a happy median. Conditions that may qualify would include floods, zombies, government motorcades, and deep snow — but that should be about it.
Kids going to school in the cold is not going to turn this country around in and of itself but maybe — just maybe — it will help us regain a bit of the individualist can-do spirit we need.
Published in Culture, General
Don’t make me go all “Grumpy Old Man” on you.
I’ve not seen closures due to cold, but we’ve had some ice days. In the perpetually wet PacNorWest it is not uncommon for it to rain all evening, then clear off at midnight and turn the entire area into a skating rink by morning. I try to keep a good sick leave balance at work so I don’t have drive with the idiots in such conditions.
I can see giving the school staff some leeway on weather days as well. I’ve met some of them, and I would be concerned about the public’s safety should they be required to drive in much less snow than would impede a bus.
Central Ohio does not get as much cold and snow as Chicago, so their “snow day” trigger finger is a bit itchier. They simply lack the equipment in terms of block heaters and snow chains. That being said, when growing up, we would get snow days typically only for days when the snow was heavy enough and timed just right to prevent side roads from getting cleared in time to get the buses out. We only got “cold days” off when the temps hit -20F, such as the winters of 89/90 and 93/94, each of which had several consecutive days where the temps here did get that low and stayed there.
-10 (our overnight low last night) seems a bit warm to be canceling school, but I guess they figure that kids today have less in the way of cold gear like snow pants, and with recent EPA regs on diesels the engines get a lot tetchier in the cold than they used to.
We all had snow pants and such growing up, but then we didn’t have the same indoor attractions to keep us out of our parents’ hair. We’d be ordered out just so Mom could have some quiet.
One of the biggest differences between when I went to school and now is that more parents were around to make sure their children were clothed warmly enough.
Greenville, SC schools are on a 3 hour delay because the wind chills were -5 this morning. We do not have enough cold weather for some children to have clothes for this weather + waiting for a bus in the dark.
I did not coddle my children (just ask them) but I did make sure they had breakfast available and warm enough clothes to put on. I realize now that too many children do not have parents who do those things. A little grace goes a long way.
skipsul – funny that you mention days you could not go to school but still went out to play. In my town parents are scrambling for alternatives so they can work or at least do something with the kids. I’ve received several emails from organizations saying they are open today. Seems odd that I can schlep the kids to the library today but not school
The library doesn’t require buses to transport its patrons or its employees, and newer buses are much more finicky in cold weather. Heck, even my SUV had trouble starting this morning, and didn’t really get warm until I was at work. Businesses have a pecuniary incentive to open that the schools do not have (they get paid anyway).
We’ve kept my business closed only 1 or 2 days (though we have closed early at times) due to weather in the last 13 years – and those times were due to county-wide snow emergencies. Ohio has 3 levels of snow emergency:
We had a couple of Level 2’s back in 2004 and 2005 and stayed closed. No level 3 emergencies here since the last big blizzard of 1978.
Our superintendent decides school closings by putting his tongue to the middle school flag pole in the mornings. Thith morninth he thaid it wath too cold.
My mother-in-law called last night to suggest we keep the kids home today because of the cold. My wife reminded her of the tempurature Mr. Cheapskate sets the thermostat to and assured her the kids will be much warmer in school.
Children in Pakistan can’t go to school because they might get shot or kidnapped.
Up here in the Great White North, the schools don’t close for snow days. The school buses stop running when the streets are deemed too dangerous (i.e. after freezing rain), but if kids live within walking distance (or if the parents drive ’em to school) then school’s on, baybee!
Typical.
You Right-wingers bitch and complain about what Our schools are doing to “Our children” and then bitch and complain when the schools close and “Our children” can’t go.
I don’t count. My kids go to a private school.
I spent a decent chunk of my childhood in the Chicago suburbs, and am probably only a bit younger than you. Typically, when all other school systems in the Chicago area were closed for cold, ice, or snow, ours was still open. Not that we learned much on those days. Typically, half the teachers were missing (along with a great many students).
I didn’t blame the missing teachers for not showing up, either. They were the ones commuting in from Wisconsin (where the cost of living is lower). When I-94 turns into an ice rink or ski track, driving it could be called fun (if that’s your idea of fun), but not exactly safe. And that’s if the lightweight, fuel-efficient car you use to make the commute can even make it out of the driveway!
I used to know a French-Canadian. He said that when he was a kid and schools would close because of cold, he and his buddies would play hockey.
What are these “school buses” you speak of? When I went to school in Michigan, New Jersey, and Missouri, my pet dinosaur and I walked.
From 1858 to 1991 (the last time I checked), Iowa State Univ. closed for snow/ice 6 times. I was there for 2 of them. The first winter after moving to the DC area in 1992, snow was predicted and schools closed before the first snowflake hit the ground. I did not know how to take that news.
When should schools close? Why, whenever the union thinks teachers need a break! In northern Virginia, the first cold or cold-and-snowy weather bring closings and delays. After awhile (just a guess: when the budgeted snow days are used up), people just seem to get on with it.
I am a very long-ago graduate of the Chicago public schools, and also a sad example of why no child should have contact with the products of teachers colleges. School never, ever closed due to weather, but then everyone walked to elementary school and walked home for lunch, too, or took city buses to high school, and teachers did not seem to live far from school either. We also wore galoshes and snow pants and still froze half to death. No one seemed to think that was a problem.
And like our ancestors, we cling to these stories of hardship.
When I was a kid, being sent out into the freezing cold at recess was considered a good way to teach about about the need to dress appropriately.
I forgot to wear my snowpants once. Just once.
To be fair, the schools were probably closed not due to cold, per se, but rather due to excessive snowfall or icy roads, making vehicular travel difficult or dangerous. This sort of danger would not apply to children who could safely walk to the local pond hockey rink.
Obviously, being inside a classroom would be the safest place for a kid on a snow day. The “danger” comes from the trip to and from school.
To be fair, it makes sense that the threshold for concern would be lower in areas where heavy snowfall is an infrequent occurrence, since those are precisely the areas where snow removal budgets are lower and ordinary folk are generally less prepared for winter conditions in general.
Up here in the Great White North we had a lot of fun at Toronto’s expense a couple of decades ago because their mayor called in the army to help out after a particularly heavy snowfall.
The thing is though, it was kind of unfair of us smug bastards. Toronto actually gets way less snow on average than virtually any other major Canadian city due to some unique geographical circumstances. It therefore makes perfect sense that their snow removal capabilities would be less able to handle a winter storm that is common for the rest of us but is anomalous for Toronto.
On the other side of Lake Ontario, Rochester New York gets WAY more snow annually than Toronto does, and as such it’s way better equipped to handle heavy snowfall.
Now, if a place like Montréal ground to halt upon every snow warning, that would be a cause for concern. They have pretty much the best, most sophisticated, most extensive, snow removal infrastructure of any city I know.
So, the idea that schools in Chicago, of all places, are shut down due to snow kinda blows my mind. It should be the sort of place that laughs at winter.
I’m guessing that the teachers still get paid for snow days. Conservatives like to get what they’ve already paid for. If closed schools meant tax refunds for those days, I bet conservatives would like ’em just fine.
Last month many of the schools here in the Bay Area closed due to rain.
In our defense, California has been in a severe drought for the past few years, so we’re unfamiliar with this strange weather phenomenon where water falls from the skies…
Were the schools in question at least at some sort of risk of flooding?
You know, I can’t remember ever seeing a car with tire chains up here in the Great White North (even though they are legally permitted), and yet we seem to manage.
Snow tires, all-wheel drive, and slowing the [redacted] down when there’s snow and ice on the roads seems to work just fine, for the most part (and I’ve driven across the top of Lake Superior during a snowy winter!).
You only need chains for really bad snow or for when you don’t have snow tires. They’re definitely a rarity anymore, though my relatives in Duluth do still keep them on hand.
Our overnight low tonight is -22(F)/-30(c).
I really wish I’d started the walk home before the sun went down…
Here’s a story about it from the SF Chronicle:
I don’t think there was any real possibility of the schools flooding from 3 inches of rain. Apparently the concern was the risk of “having our students injured or seriously delayed transporting (them) to and from school” due to “downed trees, power outages and flooded highways.”
Also this:
this. is. why. especially when the weather strays from the norm of your climate.
but a 3-hour delay seems non-sensical.
Our district closings and delays seem to be related to refusal to pay overtime. if a storm comes in, and sidewalks and parking lots can’t be cleared, plowed, to safety standards on regular scheduled maintenance hours, in time for a 2-hour delay opening, then school is closed.
We have never had a ‘cold’ closing. Just snow, ice and flooding.
Ok, wait, I think a National Weather Service alert about flash floods, downed trees, and flooded highways, is more than a little rain.
I haven’t seen the stats recently, but I’m pretty sure that floods are still, statistically-speaking, the deadliest of meteorological phenomena.
I guess it depends on how the National Weather Service defines “floods”. I’d like to think their criteria doesn’t include puddles.
It’s been hovering around zero for the last couple of days here in Kansas City. Wind chills drop it into the -15 range. Only one major school district in the city closed due to the cold. Several rural districts closed though, which wasn’t much of a surprise. Many other districts had delayed starts. All due to the cold. We don’t want children standing too long at bus stops especially when there is a good chance that the bus might not start and fail to show up.
We walked to school (in my day) in all kinds of weather when I was a kid. Here’s the best part: girls were not allowed to wear pants to school…no matter what the temperature or if snow was falling. I survived.
I’ve worked for the same company for 35 years. They never close due to weather except for last year. The snow forecast was about a foot of snow. The mayor asked that businesses allow employees to stay home and/or work from home so the city could clear the streets and highways easier and faster. This weather event was within weeks of the Atlanta snow/ice event last year that left motorists and students stranded so it was all very fresh in the minds of the public. My employer complied and we got to stay home.
All in all, we are such a litigious society that I suppose that we must take all precautions to ensure we don’t get sued because little Johnny might get cold at the bus stop.
I’m in a part of Western New York State that gets lots of snow, so we have substantial equipment to deal with that. A few of the school districts in the more “persistent snow bands” are noted for closing due to snow. Snow closings are because of the difficulty or danger of transportation. That usually happens only if the snow is falling heavily during the time that transportation is to occur. Otherwise, the plow system allows everyone to get around (though perhaps at reduced speeds).
But, relatively new is the pattern of the city school district in the major city of the area to close because of COLD (not snow). The reasoning is that a high percentage of the students walk to school (rather than ride a bus), so they are outside and exposed for an extended time on the walk to school, and that many of the students lack adequate clothing to deal with the cold temperatures. Here, temperatures below about 15 degrees F are considered unusually cold. This week we have had single digit temperatures with strong winds.
So, a COLD closing may be different from a SNOW closing.