2 Hour Delays vs. Closed? - Page 2

[Aeress]

Two hour delays are a nightmare for parents and around here they can go from a delay to closed with little warning. One year they had already begun to pick the high school kids up when they cancelled and had to go around dropping kids off. Thankfully, this was high school, so the kids could be home alone. Imagine if it had been school age children?

This year there have already been canceled schools and mega snow problems. Walking and getting around, even in areas where it is walkable, doesn't mean it is safe or wise to do so.

[CatsCradle]

As far as I'm aware, our city doesn't use two-hour delay methods.  School is cancelled if we get a huge storm, but that has been very rare here.  If you can't walk to school, you take public transportation, which consists largely of underground subways so snow removal isn't as big of an issue.

That being said, even if there were two hour delays, I would personally prefer it over complete closure, as I normally can be fairly flexible about when I get to work.  I do prefer to go into the office over trying to get work done at home, so a delay would ultimately be better for me than a closure.  I can see, however, how that would be a problem for those who need to be at work at a given time despite school delays. 

[Girlprof]

We sometimes have two hour delays and sometimes cancellations, depending on the weather. For another perspective that I haven't seen mentioned here yet - our school system feeds about 1/3 of the kids reduced lunch. They will do whatever they can to get that food into the kids because for some of them, it is their one reliable meal of the day. So, if they can be open, they will do it.

We're lucky that my job is flexible enough to handle the occasional snow day or late start. But we're really lucky that we don't depend on that lunch. Some families do.

[CarrieMF]

 

 Two hour delays are a nightmare for parents and around here they can go from a delay to closed with little warning. One year they had already begun to pick the high school kids up when they cancelled and had to go around dropping kids off.

This is why the schools here do NOT close.  They HAVE to be open incase even 1 child shows up.

[ecoteat]

We rarely do delays here because on our rural roads, if it's bad enough to not start on time, people are probably not going to be able to get out and where they need to go in under 2 hours. But every school I've ever worked in seemed to prefer delays whenever possible because then you don't have to make them up. As a kid we had snow make-up days built in to the calendar, but the schools I know in MA and ME just tack the snow days on to the end of the year. There have been years when we are still in school the last week of June because of the snow days. If they had been delays, we wouldn't be making them up in June!

[Momily]

We have a fair number of 2 hour delays.  I understand why they are annoying, but as a teacher in a low income school, two hour delays mean you still get lunch -- that's huge for many of our kids.  I have no problems with a parent keeping their child home on those days, but understand that we're staying open because some kids need us, not to be annoying.

In my district there are no buses other than special ed, so many kids walk or take the public buses.  A big point in 2 hour delays is keeping kids off the streets for rush hour.  They'd be safe in a car, but walking can be really hazardous.

[Llyra]

It's important to consider, too, that opening on time means teachers have to be there on time. And in many places, the teachers are coming from farther away than the students, and have their OWN kids to get to school.

[mirlee]

Originally Posted by Llyra 

It's important to consider, too, that opening on time means teachers have to be there on time. And in many places, the teachers are coming from farther away than the students, and have their OWN kids to get to school.

Yup!  My husband is a teacher.  Today both of us have a delays.  Dh leaves for work by 5:15 every morning.  The call for a delay came in at 5:37.  Our delay rolled in around the same time. For me, I'm a university professor, I am not teaching this term, but I have another post at the university and the delay is very aggravating. It messes up my whole day.  A cancel would be better, but it's not that bad here. We have snow and the roads are a little slick.  If you take your time, you'll get there.

[mattemma04]

Well I decided that if the roads/weather are bad by me I will call the kids off regardless of what the school(in another city) is doing. Anytime I call my kids off (sick ,weather,or whatever) it is unexcused anyway unless I take them to the doctor. I always worried about too many days absent.Always drove them to school even when the roads were bad. I am not going to do that anymore.

[Zach'smom]

I'm also in Ohio and have only 3 snow days.  I wouldn't keep my kid home because of the weather.  Our school system is pretty conservative and I think they delay or call off school when they really don't need to.  I'm a sahm, so a 2 hour delay actually means we get to sleep in a bit, so I don't mind it.  What really annoys  a lot of people around here is when they put us on a 2 hour delay and then change it to school closed.  I know that causes a lot of problems for people.

[eepster]

Walking instead of driving doesn't always mean safe.  A couple of years a go 2 men were killed by a falling tree during a storm walking home from a prayer meeting in my town.  Though one is often safer on foot than in the car, being on foot does not guaranty safety from severe weather.  Just b/c one has the option to walk and/or take public transit doesn't mean one should be braving all types of weather.