Rockland BOCES Asst. Director of School Transportation, Joanne Thompson, explains the safety checks necessary for a bus to be operational. John Meore/lohud
When snow creeps into the forecast, a cadre of school personnel all the way from superintendents to fleet operators set their alarms a few hours earlier and go through a checklist that will help them make that eagerly awaited decision: Snow day or not.
Among them is Joanne Thompson, assistant director of school transportation at Rockland BOCES, who helps oversee a fleet of 60 buses that transport students throughout Rockland County, as well as into Westchester, Orange and Bergen counties.
On Thursday, Thompson stood outside the West Nyack facility chatting with colleagues returning from lunch and enjoying the somewhat mild temperatures before drivers began fanning out for school pickups.
“I hate to burst your bubble,” Thompson said, pulling out her cell phone. “But there’s a significant storm predicted for next Tuesday and Wednesday.”
For the next several days, Thompson will track the forecast and prepare as best as she can.
It’ll mean a lot of early wake-ups – she’s out of bed at 3:30 a.m. and at the BOCES bus depot in West Nyack by 4:15 a.m. – but it comes with the job, she said.
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Besides monitoring local weather conditions around the county – which any Rocklander knows can vary greatly from east to west or north to south – Thompson’s mornings include making sure to double-check the daily safety tests for buses and vans.
By 5 a.m. – or 5:15 a.m. the latest – officials try to have made the final call as to whether classes are on.
As of Jan. 12, seven of Rockland’s eight public school districts, as well as BOCES, have used one day. Clarkstown, the county’s largest district, has used two.
Thompson, who has been with BOCES since 2002, said, “People will always complain because one district will be closed and other parts of the county will be wondering why and saying ‘There’s nothing happening.’ But, what’s happening here is not what’s happening in North Rockland or Tompkins Cove.”
Tough call
Besides “pizza Fridays” and “no homework,” it’s probably difficult to find to find two words that excite some students more than “snow day.”
After returning from holiday break last week, kids in Rockland County’s public schools found themselves off from school on Jan. 4, when a storm dropped about 7 inches of snow across the area.
Closing school is a tough call, local superintendents said, and it’s always a decision that requires hours of preparation and discussion with administrators, municipal officials, police departments and road crews.
It also requires the ability to become an early riser, for at least part of the school year.
When there’s the threat of a winter storm, local school officials wake in the wee hours of the morning to review weather maps or drive their local roads.
“Once the weather starts getting colder, I set my alarm a bit earlier," South Orangetown schools superintendent Robert Pritchard said. "My dog, Wally, knows and expects I’ll get up earlier. His routine is that he wakes me up in the morning.”
Snowy morning or not, Pritchard said he’s checking weather conditions to see what’s predicted for the day and to know what he may need to start planning for.
“Ultimately, I’m the guy who makes the decision, but with some help from colleagues around the county,” he said.
On those mornings, local school leaders are in constant communication since there are some shared programs and each district sends students to BOCES. If half of the eight school districts call a snow day, then BOCES does also.
“We start at 4 a.m. on a massive phone chain and usually make the decision by 5 a.m. or 5:15 a.m., the latest, and we work hard to get the decision as unified as possible," Rockland BOCES Chief Operating Officer Mary Jean Marsico said.
Pritchard added: “There is some independent thought, but we are connected and rely upon each other. Everything will always go back to safety, though.”
Many local parents told The Journal News they believe schools tend to make the right decisions when it comes to cancelling classes.
“They make the best decisions they possibly can with the information on hand at that time for the safety of our children," said Lisa Donadio, who has a child in the North Rockland school district. "Everyone knows meteorology isn’t so precise that variations do not happen.”
“The majority of complaints I have seen are from parents concerned more about their work schedules,” she added.
Erica Delehanty, of Stony Point, said by this point, school officials probably “have the mindset that someone will always be upset at whatever choice is made.”
There’s mixed opinions among students, Pritchard said he’s found.
“Lots of kids love snow days and parents love them, too,” Pritchard said. “It’s a surprise treat.”
But, there’s also those students who have projects, games, meets or activities scheduled and “would rather get those days off when it’s warm out.”
A recent study by an assistant professor at Harvard showed that an occasional snow day won’t harm student learning.
After studying school closures in Massachusetts for nearly a decade, Joshua Goodman concluded most educators understood how to adjust lesson plans and prioritize important material after returning from an unexpected day off.
Goodman also found that students were most affected by days in which schools stayed open despite bad weather.
When that happens, more kids miss class, possibly because parents are hesitant to send them or there are transportation issues, and those students fell behind while teachers moved onto new lessons.
Saturday school
Most superintendents said they take a better-safe-than-sorry approach, but what happens when the number of days off begins to climb?
Locally, there hasn’t been a winter in recent memory that’s depleted the bank of days schools have set aside for closures related to weather, utilities or other emergencies.
In Rockland, most districts have three days allocated. If that number is exceeded, officials will subtract time from remaining breaks or use staff professional development days to make up class time. If schools don’t use the days, the board and superintendent may tack the time onto any upcoming breaks left in the year.
Here’s a few ways schools around the country have dealt when calendars take a wallop from winter.
- Saturday school: Some schools schedule full day sessions for Saturdays. In North Carolina’s Pender County school district, officials recently told parents in a release that while “no one likes school on a Saturday,” they had little choice because they needed to make up instructional time.
- Virtual learning day: Instead of having snow make-up days shorten vacations, some schools are exploring different ways for kids to learn at home and have turned to technology to help keep students on track.
- "Blizzard bag day": In places where weather cancellations are common, students have long been hauling home backpacks full of books and assignments to complete in the event a storm hits. Though there’s no longer a physical bag of assignments because most students access them online, many districts across New England still call them “blizzard bag days.”
So, how bad will this winter be?
Depends on who you ask.
Forecasters from AccuWeather, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Farmers’ Almanac and the Old Farmers’ Almanac have similar but different predictions for the season.
- Farmers’ Almanac: Winter 2018 will be good for sledding. We’ll have “normal” temperatures, “above normal” precipitation and “a cold-and-snowy” winter. The almanac has red flagged the dates of Jan. 20 to 23, Feb. 4 to 7, Feb. 16 and 19, March 1 to 3 and March 20 to 23 “for some heavy precipitation.”
- NOAA: From December to February, the area will experience above-average temperatures due to La Nina, a phase of cooler than average waters in the Pacific Ocean, and “a normal amount of precipitation.”
- Old Farmers’ Almanac: This winter will be cold – but not colder than usual – and have “above normal” amounts of snowfall.
- AccuWeather: We’re in for a cold, snowy season, with the coldest air hitting us in January. Meteorologists’ early predictions included possible snow during the holiday season.
- National Weather Service: The region will see a winter with warmer than usual temperatures and below-normal snowfall, due to the La Nina pattern.
When the long-range forecasts are released each fall, Marsico said they are something officials “absolutely” look at.
“We do it for a lot of reasons. You do it to look at whether you’ll have enough staffing in place, if all our equipment pieces are working effectively in events we do get hit, if we have enough salt, if we are allocating enough money into the budget and is there a backup plan,” she said. “All those questions come into effect.”