These people found a great use for the extra snow. Also, their sidewalk was clear… sort of.
Sunday night, before heading out to dinner, my wife asked me to Tweet about Monday’s school closings. She was pretty annoyed, as were a number of people on our elementary school mailing list. So I sent out this:
Wish #Newton schools would give a reason for closing schools in the phone message. Parents aren’t happy. Cc: @14thvillage @newtonmapatch
— Chuck Tanowitz (@ctanowitz) February 10, 2013
The results came back pretty fast, with most people wondering the same thing. The roads, while narrow, were relatively clear. Yes, the sidewalks still needed work, but they were OK. Did the kids really need a second day off?
The Newton Patch did a little calling and the city said that the sidewalks were the issue. Kids who walked the school simply couldn’t move safely. And that makes complete sense. In fact, that played out in the comments section of the article with most people agreeing with the school’s decision.
But today is Thursday and the first day I had a chance to walk my children to school. Rather than sticking to some of the back streets as we normally do, I chose to take them up Waltham Street, assuming that the sidewalks on this main thorofare would be clear. But they weren’t! Not all of them anyway. Many residents simply hadn’t done theirs. Others left their snow mounds right in the path of the sidewalk for my kids to climb over. Now, before you pull out the “old and infirm” argument please note that their own walkways and driveways were perfectly clear. Meaning, even if people couldn’t do the work themselves, they found others to do it, just not all of it.
Which begs the question: if the goal of the extra snow day was to clear out sidewalks, and on Thursday, even after some very warm temperatures, the children still need to walk on the road, did it make sense to close the schools?
Monday’s school closings were absolutely needed.
Sidewalks are still a significant problem in many places; but they were an even bigger problem on Monday.
Streets were too narrow for buses on Monday; even though too many (mine included) are still too narrow.
Of course, it’s too bad that cancelling school on Monday, didn’t also come with a legal requirement that all kids tall enough to hold a shovel weren’t put to work clearing sidewalks! (So parents who were stuck home because school was cancelled could get some work done remotely.)
Adding young children into the mix of early morning commuters was a recipe for danger. I support the Superintendent’s call on this one.
Please reverse the thought: If some streets and sidewalks are still blocked today, then it follows to ask how much worse were they Monday morning?
Secondarily I ask, why were some parents upset about school not being open?
When my three were younger and school was cancelled, I assumed it was done for reasons of having their safety in mind. I accepted the decision and made other arrangements. Or stayed home and lost income.
Unquestionably, closing the schools on Monday was the right thing to do.
Well, I will be in the minority. Kids were out sledding, in the Center eating JP Licks. Parents, after being inside for three days, DROVE their kids sledding, and to various other places. Teens were eating pizza in the business districts. I don’t know of anyone that felt it was so unsafe, that they stayed inside!
If parents are willing to drive them around and park in the same areas that are too dangerous to get to school, then maybe we should have had school.
Keep in mind, as a parent you can always keep the kids home (especially the younger ones) if YOU feel as a parent it is too dangerous to get around.
I am sorry, but if you can walk around Newton, you can get to school (maybe a delayed opening).
Our school sent out an email that if you normally walk, but were planning to drive . . . use a carpool.
The previous Super seemed to have a penchant for keeping the schools open no matter what. There was one blizzard in particular that was really bad and he still didn’t call off school. Even though we lived DIRECTLY across from the school, I elected to keep my child home because the sidewalk and corners were not plowed. Of course, my child missed the day’s work which made it inconvenient but better safe than sorry.
I’m confused at the anger at the school being closed? The days are made up if necessary.
The comments at the top get closer to the point, but the question is: did closing the schools do what they were intended to do? That is, make the streets safer and get the sidewalks cleared? Perhaps they were worse on Monday, but does that mean the kids shouldn’t have been in school?
I had mine in my house most of the day, bouncing off the walls, while I tried to do work. We also had a doctor’s appointment on Monday morning and coming back from Longwood took forever, so I get it that more kids would have made the commute worse.
However, if the goal was to make it so the kids could get to school safely and easily, was that bar met? I’m not so sure.
When I drove to work Monday morning, there were lots of people walking in the streets, including on many busy streets. And the commute Monday by all accounts was frightful. It has become, shall we say, less bad, each day since.
No the streets/sidewalks are still not clean and this was a relatively mild week so the city should have at the very minumum made sure that the school areas were clean.
The City gets a failing grade on this one and it is a real Safety issue. We have been very lucky that no children have gotten hit while walking in the streets.
Maybe the city was too overwhelmed with all their Override Town halls to make sure they had the snow removal of the schools and the city under control.