Mother Nature sometimes has final say about school status

(Published Sunday, Dec. 16, 2007 in Examiner-Enterprise)

Last weekend was longer than we had expected.

When we released our students on Friday, Dec. 7, we planned to see them again on the following Monday. But Mother Nature had other ideas. An ice storm descended upon the Midwest, wiping out power in some areas while making many roads slick and dangerous. Classes within the Bartlesville Public School District were canceled on Monday and Tuesday.

The decision to cancel classes is never an easy one. Our first choice is always to have the students in class. Our job is to provide them with the best education possible, and they must be in school in order for that process to take place. However, safety must be the overriding priority. And on those days when the weather presents concerns, we must address them.

On any given day when it looks as though classes may be threatened by unruly weather, we examine several different factors before making a decision. Weather reports are collected from a variety of different sources to give us an idea of exactly what type of conditions we should expect. We touch base with Bartlesville city officials as well to get a feel for what they are expecting from Mother Nature and how they will deal with it. Roads are sanded during snowy and icy conditions. However, if we endure a heavy accumulation, sometimes the help provided by the sand in terms of melting the ice and providing traction can be very limited.

I always like to get a first-hand view of the roads as well. Thus, I typically drive them whenever possible to get an idea of what challenges they will provide for parents, students and bus drivers. The district's director of maintenance and transportation, Bob Anderson, always drives the roads as well.

While driving, we will check in with the different school sites, to see how the streets around them look as well as the parking and pick-up/drop-off areas. I like to talk to other school superintendents in the area also, to get some of their thoughts.

All told, we try to collect as much information as we can in order to make as informed a decision as possible. Ultimately, the final decision is mine to make and I do not take that responsibility lightly.

A variety of factors obviously come into play when determining whether or not to have classes when facing threatening weather. Some of them, however, aren't always obvious at first glance. While some roads might seem perfectly passable for a compact car, getting a school bus down them might be another matter entirely. Sometimes, even if snow and ice are on the ground, buses can make their rounds if snow routes are utilized. The link to the snow routes can be accessed on the front page of the district's official web site at www.bps-ok.org . If we are going to use snow routes on a given day, we try to post that message on our web site while getting the message out to area radio stations as well.

If Mother Nature has slowed driving conditions to a crawl, and the temperatures are especially cold, we don't want the students to stand outside in the elements for too long as they await their respective buses.

Whenever we do decide to cancel classes, we try to get the message out to parents, students and employees within the Bartlesville Public School District as quickly as possible. The area television stations are contacted and they will typically post the school closings on a text “crawl” which is featured on the bottom of the screen. We touch base with the Bartlesville Police Department, the Examiner-Enterprise and the area radio stations as well.

Those interested can visit our web site, also, where important information about the district is always prominently displayed in a timely manner.