Brian Hagberg
RUSSELL, Pa. – Weather-related school closings are common this time of year, yet the process behind those decisions is often seen as a mystery to those on the outside.
In response to a question from board member Joe Colosimo, Warren County School District Superintendent Amy Stewart briefly outlined the WCSD’s procedure during Monday’s regular board meeting.
“Mike (Kiehl, WCSD Transportation Director) does the heavy lifting on this,” Stewart said. “He has a set of contacts that he is in touch with and our goal is to make the first call by 5 a.m.”
The 5 a.m. deadline, Stewart said, is to prevent bus drivers from starting their runs if school is delayed or closed.
The biggest challenge, literally and figuratively, is the size of Warren County. At 899 square miles, the weather in one corner of the county can be vastly different than the opposite corner. As an example, Stewart said what’s happening in Bear Lake isn’t necessarily what’s occurring in Sheffield.
“Mike is in touch with me, and we talk it out,” Stewart said. “He gives me all the intel that he can. He’s talking to people in all corners of the county because, again, the weather in Sheffield is typically very different than the weather that we see in the western part of the county. So we make the best decision that we can at the time based upon the safety of the kids.”
An additional challenge is those times when severe weather isn’t happening at the start of school but is forecast to begin later in the day.
“The hardest part about making the call is sometimes you’re able to make the call based upon what is actually happening,” Stewart said. “Those are the easier decisions to make. The hard ones are when you have to make it based on the forecast.”
WCSD buses travel approximately 10,000 miles of road each school day. The differences in road surface (dirt, paved, brick, etc.) can also impact the closure decision, Stewart said.
While snow is the most visible issue, Stewart said the biggest factor in making a delay or closure decision is ice.
“Quite frankly, there are folks that think just because it’s snowing, we should cancel, we can’t cancel every time it snows,” Stewart said. “But the ice is usually a deal breaker. I mean, that’s really a difficult beast to tackle. And our buses really don’t have a chance. And we don’t want to put all those folks on the road. So we’ll usually take that cautious approach.”
Another point of contention Stewart said she often hears about is cold.
The district was on Christmas break during the most recent severe cold snap, but Stewart said there is no hard and fast rule, or temperature threshold when it comes to closing due to cold.
“Sometimes we’ll get parents to get very upset. And they’ll tell us you know, it’s negative 12 we have to cancel school,” Stewart said. “We can get into a month-long stint of really cold weather where it might be below zero. So we don’t have a temperature policy where when it hits a certain temperature, we automatically close. We have to size it up and get the kids to school when we can. But it’s not an exact science.”
