Daria Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 We've had a lot of snow closing this year, and 3 of them have annoyed me in how late they came. Today was the worst. DS15 had a filmmaking class that started at 11:00 today, about a mile and a half from my home. He likes to be early so he left home around 10:20 on foot and arrived at the front door where he met a classmate leaving the building, who told him that it was a "snow day". I think the arrival of the 2 boys (1/3 of the class) must have reminded them that they hadn't sent out a notice because the email canceling the class arrived in my inbox at 10:51. I think we can all agree that 9 minutes isn't enough notice, but I'm curious what people think is appropriate notice. I'm a teacher, and we've had a couple school closings this year that I felt were called late, but nothing as ridiculous as today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Our school district and those around us send out a notice at 5:30 am for schools that start in the 8 to 8:30 period. You sign up for the types of notification you want -- phone, text, email. The school superintendent begins the process around 3:30 am, consulting with police, DOT, and other superintendents. We live in a commuting area, so people have to change schedules, arrange babysitters, etc. we often get a call at night telling us what is going on and reminding us when a decision will be made. Smaller groups around here usually follow whatever the schools do. I have run educational programs and had to make snow decisions. We made sure that the decision was finalized well before the furthest person would have to leave. The decision would not always be perfect, but it had to be made in time. We also publicized our protocol for decisions -- x inches of snow of the ground, 2x inches predicted and beginning to fall, 3x predicted but not falling yet. I do not remember the exact details, but that was the general idea. Each case could have variations -- ice being an example. If people called way ahead, we told them when the decision would be made. I am sorry for what happened in your situation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
momofkhm Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 That *is* ridiculous! I got an email for one of ds's classes last week Tuesday a minute after class was supposed to start that it was cancelled. By that point, we had already decided that the roads were too bad to drive on and he wasn't going. Class was at 10:15a. We got an email at 7:30a that class was on. (But that is the published thing they do - decide at 7:30 for morning classes and by 10 for afternoon classes.) All around us the public schools were closing. DH was home and so tried to drive him, didn't even make it off our road because he couldn't get any traction. Hence the staying home. The local public school got lots of grief over calling it late. They have had school 2 days in the last 10! They got grief over calling school at 10 pm for the next day! So you can imagine what happened the Tuesday (above) where first they delayed for 2 hours and then cancelled. In everyone's defense, the Tuesday in question, the snow was not in the forecast the night before. It came out of nowhere and no one knew how much there was going to be. It just kept falling and falling. Yes, I like as much time as possible to know class is cancelled. I think an hour ahead is enough for me since we homeschool and on outside class days I don't work. But then too, if the roads become more dangerous as time goes on, call class. I think it would be worse to get out of class and no one be able to safely make it home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poppy Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I've run many adult training programs at different companies. Typically snow decisions are made in the morning the day of by several people-in-charge calling each other. And there should be multiple options for notice. Like, we email everyone AND you can check the website for info. Or we email everyone AND have a "check this voicemail for updates" line. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomtoCandJ Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 Before 6 am when dd1 has to be up for school Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jewellsmommy Posted March 1, 2015 Share Posted March 1, 2015 I think notifications should come at least 1.5 hours before the scheduled start time for a local event. If it is a class where you know that some have to travel 30+ minutes, then it should be at least 2.5 hrs. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Recently, we were given the sorry we are canceled notice about ten minutes after the start time. That was only given after several of us called the person to see what was up. Personally, I prefer at least an 2 hours before the meet time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I think notifications should come at least 1.5 hours before the scheduled start time for a local event. If it is a class where you know that some have to travel 30+ minutes, then it should be at least 2.5 hrs. This sounds fair. If my school were closed, I would need to know by 7:30 at the latest, otherwise I'm headed out the door and I don't have a smart phone. It's 30 minutes away. Some students and faculty drive further, so I'd certainly expect notification well before a working day was to begin. I think most staff are there by 8 if not earlier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
happypamama Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 At least an hour, if not more, depending on how far people are driving. 9 minutes, especially if it's questionable (may be canceled or may not be), is ridiculous. Our local schools cancel or post delays by 5:30 or 6, often the night before. I emailed my kids' instructor at about 7:30 or 8 the other day, to see if class was still on. Our class starts at 11, but there's a 10 am class too. We need to leave by 10:20, but since I needed to decide if I needed to pack lunch, toys for the little boys, water bottles, etc., I needed to know by 9:45 at the latest. So, over an hour. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bambam Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Our East Texas location recently had several days of bad weather. Typically the folks in TX cancel the night before if there is any "wintery mix" forecasted! However, one of our local CCs would post cancellation of the first class the night before with the note that the decision for the rest of the day would be made by 7 am and posted. This made so much sense as the first class was already cancelled so no one would be getting up and leaving super early, and they had some lead time in the morning to decide if the actual weather meant they should cancel classes for the entire day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 What kind of class is this? It's one thing for a large public school, with dozens of employees, a hundred students, maybe school buses, and afterschool activities to coordinate a snow day -- there are generally bureaucratic (in a good way) policies and procedures to follow, with appropriate notice. It's another thing for a taught-by-one-person kind of class, where the teacher just might have gotten stuck in the snow halfway to class, and never really had a policy about weather related cancellations to begin with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I've gotten about a half hour's notice once or twice (before the time my kids were supposed to be at the bus stop). It would be nice to have more than that. Today my sister drove my kids for about an hour to go to an archery class. The doors were locked. :/ I don't know how they would have notified me of that, though, because it's a drop-in kind of deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mom22ns Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Last year I drove ds to his college class in a terrible snow storm only to get there and find the State U canceled 30 min before his class. We live 40 min away and in the storm it took us an hour to get there. It took more than an hour to get back home. Annoying. I was glad they canceled though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daria Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 What kind of class is this? It's one thing for a large public school, with dozens of employees, a hundred students, maybe school buses, and afterschool activities to coordinate a snow day -- there are generally bureaucratic (in a good way) policies and procedures to follow, with appropriate notice. It's another thing for a taught-by-one-person kind of class, where the teacher just might have gotten stuck in the snow halfway to class, and never really had a policy about weather related cancellations to begin with. It was a small class (6 kids), in a larger organization. The organization has lots of classes, but this was the earliest class this morning. The issue today was actually freezing rain, but it was just beginning to fall when the class should have started, so I have trouble imagining the teacher stuck in the rain. I understand that people make mistakes and have emergencies, but then I would have expected the email, which came from the organization and not the teacher, to have acknowledged it in some way -- "We apologize . . . " would have been nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alessandra Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Some of our scout troops use group texting. So everyone who has a phone (not necessarily a smartphone) can get a message. One scout group I'm involved does hikes.They notify early in the morning, but if you need to know sooner, they have a contact person for ash hike, plus a list of all the leader phones, so you can call if you want to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 We nearly always get notice by 6:00am (private school; starts at 8:15). There was one instance, though, in which the whole drive there, I was saying, "I cannot believe they didn't call off today!" The roads were covered! When we pulled into the carpool line, a teacher came running out to waive us off. That was considerably later than desirable. And, not to hijack, but what annoys me is that it is SUCH an enormous no-win whenever closings or delays occur. There are always FB rants no matter what decision is made. We live where it snows. Delays and closings will happen. People need to stop sassin' about it. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halftime Hope Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Recently, ds2's college classes started with his earliest class, but then at 9:45am, they called off the rest of the classes for the day. I don't know what they did for the 9:40 classes; I suppose they had class and then went home. The heavy snow started at ~9:30, so that's apparently when the administration decided not to put everyone (some percentage of 13K students and faculty) in harm's way, and let people go/stay home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MomtoCandJ Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 One time they didn't cancel school until after dd1 had gotten on the bus. I was a bit peeved that day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SKL Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 We nearly always get notice by 6:00am (private school; starts at 8:15). There was one instance, though, in which the whole drive there, I was saying, "I cannot believe they didn't call off today!" The roads were covered! When we pulled into the carpool line, a teacher came running out to waive us off. That was considerably later than desirable. Yeah, come to think of it that did happen to me last year. I dropped my kids off and was driving away, and happened to notice them with another kid struggling to open the door. Good thing I looked in the rear view mirror. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elegantlion Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 We nearly always get notice by 6:00am (private school; starts at 8:15). There was one instance, though, in which the whole drive there, I was saying, "I cannot believe they didn't call off today!" The roads were covered! When we pulled into the carpool line, a teacher came running out to waive us off. That was considerably later than desirable. And, not to hijack, but what annoys me is that it is SUCH an enormous no-win whenever closings or delays occur. There are always FB rants no matter what decision is made. We live where it snows. Delays and closings will happen. People need to stop sassin' about it. I had that once when ds was in private school. Looked for closing, nothing, headed out the door and no one was there. I was peeved. I think they cancelled right before we left. It was about 15 minutes drive time. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinder Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I'm in the Atlanta area. After last year's Snowmageddon schools have been more cautious this year. Cancellations in our area (2 different counties plus ds's college) came at least 12 hours before the first class the next day. Schools were closed 3 days last week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmrich Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I teach classes out of my home. Last week I had a delay, but then it really started to snow (not in the forecast) and quickly cancelled class for the rest of the day. The public schools had to turn buses around to take kids back home. I always tell parents to use their judgement as to what it is like in their area. A few miles can make a big difference in terms of snow, ice, or rain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Katy Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I think when it comes to safety issues use your own judgment and keep them home if you think it should be cancelled. When I was in school we would frequently get on the bus, get to school, have school cancelled before the first class started, and then take the bus back home. We were told that the reason was that the state counted the day as one of the 180 school days if they ran the bus system. After my parents figured that out we stopped having to go on days they thought we should stay home. There were probably ten days they let us stay home when school wasn't cancelled yet. They cancelled before classes started on 8 out of ten of those times, and the other two days were closed early in less than two hours. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Well, we live in Memphis, where a breath of snow in the air shuts everything down. Pre-DD, though, we got a school superintendent from Minnesota who brought most of her higher level staff with her. We had a day when it was starting to get slick, but at the time I needed to leave to teach (I was at a 7:45 start school, and had breakfast duty starting at 7:00), it hadn't been called yet. About 6:45-or after some of the first buses would have been run, the call came over the radio that schools were closed, do NOT send your kids!! Apparently, the executive staff hadn't seen anything wrong with it, coming from a place where everyone has snow tires until they got calls from the bus garage that the buses would not start and half the drivers had called in that they weren't coming in because it was too dangerous to drive-on a day the Minnesota folks figured was just fine! (I got the call as I was, quite literally, sliding off the road. Fortunately, there weren't any other idiots out, so I was able to recover and make it home). Now the schools make a call by 5:00, and usually by 10:30 the night before. Most of DD's stuff follows the school district closings, except for tumbling, where the coaches make a call at about 2:00 for afternoon/evening teams/classes. Which worked out well, since we've had several days in the last 2 weeks where PS was closed, but the roads were fine by the afternoon, and the kids really benefited from getting in the gym since freezing rain/icy stuff isn't fun to play in. I kind of pitied the coaches, though... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vonfirmath Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 I'm in the Atlanta area. After last year's Snowmageddon schools have been more cautious this year. Cancellations in our area (2 different counties plus ds's college) came at least 12 hours before the first class the next day. Schools were closed 3 days last week. We had a case like that last year. Cancellation came after the first buses had loaded. So some kids were kept at school until their parents could come and others were told NOT to come. So this year our district is being extra-careful to make decisions the night before. So we had a two hour delay that probably was not strictly needed. But I understand the reason why. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aura Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 Leadership requires making decisions. I hate it when leaders refuse to make a call, putting it off until the decision is made for them. Just make the call already! Atlanta's Snowmaggedon is a very good example of what happens when you bet against the weather. No children should be stuck in buses overnight in freezing weather! :mad: The leadership (whoever that was) bet against the weather and lost, and that's exactly what happened. Still makes me mad, and I don't even live in Atlanta! :mad: So, yeah, making the call might mean an unnecessary inconvenience, but you've got to do it. Leadership should suck it up and make the call by at least an hour before the furthest person needs to leave home (I liked this suggestion earlier in the thread). And they need to err on the side of caution, so people need to shut up about it and quit whining...of course, the latter will never happen because there will always be some idiot with a big mouth, but that's another thing that leaders need to learn to accept. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daria Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 I think when it comes to safety issues use your own judgment and keep them home if you think it should be cancelled. When I was in school we would frequently get on the bus, get to school, have school cancelled before the first class started, and then take the bus back home. We were told that the reason was that the state counted the day as one of the 180 school days if they ran the bus system. After my parents figured that out we stopped having to go on days they thought we should stay home. There were probably ten days they let us stay home when school wasn't cancelled yet. They cancelled before classes started on 8 out of ten of those times, and the other two days were closed early in less than two hours. I agree with the bolded, but in this case I obviously did feel that it was safe for him to go since I sent him. In this case, the whole building was closed so he couldn't even go inside and warm up before turning around to walk home. Luckily we're in a pretty walkable area, so I could suggest that he stop at Starbucks on the way home. We had a day earlier this year when I got almost all the way to the school where I teach before they announced the closing, but it was still more than a hour before kids were supposed to arrive. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMamaBird Posted March 2, 2015 Share Posted March 2, 2015 All of our events have standing policies where if the local school district is closed due to weather the event is closed. That way, I know first thing in the morning what our schedule will look like for the day. I would say that 9 minutes is definitely an inappropriate amount of notice. For an 11 o'clock class you should have been given at least two hours if it was strictly weather related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daria Posted March 2, 2015 Author Share Posted March 2, 2015 All of our events have standing policies where if the local school district is closed due to weather the event is closed. That way, I know first thing in the morning what our schedule will look like for the day. I would say that 9 minutes is definitely an inappropriate amount of notice. For an 11 o'clock class you should have been given at least two hours if it was strictly weather related. I think that's the policy of this place too, but since it was a Sunday morning class, the schools wouldn't have been open anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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