Whether or not to cancel school, arrive late, or dismiss early seems to be a decision having to be made all too often the past several years. Whether it is El Nino, La Nina, global warming, or just a coincidence, the weather has played havoc with the school schedule. However, the most important thing to everyone is the safety of the students.
Being out of school is an inconvenience to parents, teachers, and yes even students (although they probably won’t admit it). Parents must find a way to get the student home if they don’t ride a bus, and even for bus riders, parents of younger children must have someone to stay with them while they are at home. Because businesses are not dealing with the lives of thousands of young people, many times they do not shut down because of weather conditions that cause school schedules to be altered. The days must be made up so the plans of student and parents are changed as the year progresses.
The people that make the tough decisions must rely on weather predictions from meteorologists that admit predicting weather in the Tennessee Valley is a very tough proposition. School officials listen to the latest predictions and make their call. The officials must always error on the side of caution, and after a tragedy like April 27th, everyone is on edge with that day still very heavy on everyone’s mind.
We had more snow last year than I remember in my lifetime (although I really am not that old) and we missed several days due to snowy roads. Once again this year has started off rough with storms and now the prediction of snow in November, so who knows what this school year holds for us. None of us want plans to have to be altered due to make-up days, but they are unfortunately part of what we may be forced to deal with as the year progresses. What ever the future holds rest assured that the people making the decisions will try and make sure we are at school if at all possible, but must always have the safety of our children at heart.
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