I went to school in the '60's and early '70's. Even if the bus's could not or would not run, the town kids were required to be at school. Rural kids riding the bus's were excused. I do remember one time we had an ice storm, but school was not called off. Then at 11 am they decided to call off school and we were sent home. By then the ice had already melted.
Why was school delayed today in central Iowa???
- Thread starter cytheguy
- Start date
To be fair, I work with alot of underpriviledged kids in Polk County and I'm pretty sure the safest place for them during this weather is likely at school.
Question for you, what ime should school start each morning in your opinion? And then what time should they dismiss in the afternoon?
A lot of those same kids likely don't have proper winter clothing, though. My wife (Dsm public teacher) tells me stories all the time of kids walking to school in hoodies and without gloves/hats.
Because your clients walk to your place of work right? Does your company go out and pick up your clients? No to both? You can call the schools "soft", "lazy", "ball-less", but what it comes down to is parents. Heck, I know we'd start every single day on time with no days off if we had the opportunity. However, it takes one student to get a little cold, one student who walks to school without a jacket or in shorts (yes, they do that), one even minuscule injury resulting from the weather and the entire district is looking at a lawsuit. Lawsuits are not a good thing for schools.
Not necessarily. A lot of schools are over the amount of hours right now given the number of days they go. Ones that are not, will just extend days 10-20 minutes the last month of school. Some have even talked about tossing in a Saturday. Would anyone come on a Saturday? Absolutely not. You would have more people complaining on here about having to take their kids to school on a Saturday than you would complaining about a 2 hour delay.
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I said I can get why the schools start late. What I don't get is why the before school program has to start late. This program is run independent of the school. The caretakers aren't teachers, for lack of a better word they are a daycare.
They normally open at 6:30, yet on late start days they open at 8:30. There is nothing that prevents them from opening at 6:30 on a cold day. Bad snow, okay I get that, but a cold day is different. Temp is nearly the same between 6:30 and 8:30. And this service isn't utilized by kids that walk to school. And even if their were kids that walked to it, those kids would still be "protected" by the late start because they could show up any time before school started and be part of the program.
Sorry for the rant, but sometimes it seems the school systems like to crap on the working parents of the world.
Its was all of -2 today, with little wind. It wasn't that bad out. As for the buses starting, that goes back to proper winter maintenance on them they should start. This isn't 1970 technology has came a long way in making diesel engines start and run in cold weather.
This was not the case in WDM this morning. There was still (and still is right now at 12:26) a pretty good wind blowing at 9:05 when the granddaughter had to meet the bus.
I don't know where the **** Menlo is but wunderground says it was -27 wind chill in Ames at 8 this morning.
It's pretty simple. On days when there is questionable weather, (snow, ice, cold, wind chill etc.) if a school calls off or delays, no students are harmed, however, some parents complain. If, on the other hand, if a school DOESN'T call off or delay, and a student is harmed, a bus has an accident, or worse, someone dies, all hell breaks loose including lawsuits and everyone wants to know, "why wasn't something done to prevent this?" If you were a Superintendent or school board member, which situation is easier to defend?
Nothing, but I probably would have called off the whole day since it didn't really get any warmer until 11am or so.
