Snow Daze

What a wet and wild winter it has been!   Today marks (I believe) the 6th, and hopefully last, weather related closure of the 2012-2013 school year for the Somerville Public Schools.   We're now up against the end of June and there is no more float in the schedule.  Spring - tomorrow, believe it or not - can't come quickly enough.

The decision to close the schools is made by the Superintendent when forecasts and/or current conditions indicate that the streets and sidewalks may not be safe for students and staff to travel to and from school on a given day.   In my (2 blog) tradition of long-winded blog posts, I will share with you an email response I wrote last night to a ESCS (though not Ward 1) parent who asked for clarification on the school closing decision-making process, and specifically about the widely-traveled rumor that the process is dictated by City snow emergencies and specifically the role some schools play as snow emergency parking overflows.  The process is NOT influenced by this, although in most cases it would be hard to prove this because the two events are obviously going to generally coincide.

Here's my response to one parents questions/concern on this.

I don't know if there are written guidelines indicating a particular amount of snow, as the city loosely uses 4", specific to Somerville Schools - it's a good question (I'm new at this).   I believe it's at the superintendent's discretion based on predicted conditions of roads and sidewalks during the school transit times.  I was however, just about to write a blog post on this topic - no innovative ideas, unfortunately, more of an I-feel-your-pain-but-mother-nature-is-a-cruel-mistress blog post.

I can say that it's my understanding that the decision to close the schools for weather is unrelated to the snow emergency parking (the question has been raised in a meeting).

You're right, we live in Massachusetts and I can tell you from having grown up here, having lived at one time or another in virtually every  region of  the state - and having a brother who's currently a teacher at Grafton High School - that frustration among parents around snow days is not exclusive to Somerville! 

Unfortunately, as you point out, weather forecasting is still far from an exact science.   During the snow 2 weeks ago, the storm was obviously considerably worse than the forecast the night before had indicated and some parents expressed frustration about NOT having a snow day declared.  It's one of those tough calls that has to be made based on the best available forecasted conditions.   When the forecast is right, there is no celebration - parents, particularly those with younger children, need to jump through hoops to find childcare or miss work themselves.   The negative effects on the student's academic "momentum" is a cause for concern. Fortunately  we haven't historically had a huge number of snow days in Somerville.  I'm guessing that's why we still start school after Labor Day while much of Massachusetts starts the week before. 

Needless to say,when the forecast is wrong, the frustration of parents will be palpable.  But it still doesn't, in my opinion, make it a bad call.   We've talked about this before in School Committee meetings - I've only been on the Committee for a grand total of two regular meetings and we're 2 for 2 in discussing this topic.   I'm sure it will be raised again.   If someone has an obvious solution,I'm all ears, but we have to continue to put the safety of our students - and staff, many of whom come from out-of-town - first and foremost. 

Not much help maybe - but I do feel your pain.  My wife or I typically have to use one of our limited vacation days when the schools close for snow, and we are lucky enough to at least have a little PTO to use.   Many parents don't, and they're in the toughest spot. 

Thanks for writing.  If I've given you incorrect or incomplete information I'm sure one of my colleagues will correct me.  I'm not sure if global climate change is going to start to do strange things to our local weather patterns, and the hurricane closure and multiple snow days portend the new normal in Somerville; or if this is merely an anomaly and we'll go back to the more familiar patterns of my childhood growing up in Central Mass. - where we'd be getting hammered with 18" of snow that seemed to always "turn to rain" around Boston.  Those were the days - and I'm not that old so they weren't so long ago!

Here's to tomorrow.  Here's to spring!