CENTRAL VALLEY — Monroe-Woodbury School District officials know many parents weren’t happy - clearly a mild understatement - with the decision to open school and to not have an early dismissal on Tuesday, when about five inches of snow fell on the area during the afternoon and in the height of dismissal times.
Monroe-Woodbury was among 17 of 19 districts which held classes on Tuesday. Most districts dismissed students early.
The Tuxedo and Greenwood Lake school districts were closed.
Up-to-the-minute
But M-W officials wanted to make it clear the decision to have school in session was based on up-to-the-minute weather forecasts, acknowledging forecasts can and will continue to be unpredictable.
The most up-to-date information available to them, they said, led them to believe they had a large enough window of time to keep school in session all day and transport students with good road conditions.
But that didn’t happen.
“The decision to close or delay or dismiss early is based on number facts,” said Superintendent Edward Mehrhof, as he has noted in previous years. “We start this process at 4 a.m., consulting with others. We felt we were fine to open and get kids into school. Every single report said the storm would start around 8 a.m., would taper off by noon and over by 1 p.m.”
Mehrhof said assuming the forecast played out as projected, that would give road crews time to continue clearing roads before high school dismissal.
However, he said, an “Alberta Clipper” converged with another storm just at that time and that’s why more snow fell than was initially projected. The fast-moving storm was supposed to come in fast and leave fast and not carry a lot of snow with it, he said.
Ripple effect
But that didn’t happen, either.
“We didn’t release early because we didn’t want to release in the height (of the storm) and we wanted to give the towns time to clear the roads,” said Assistant Superintendent Jeffrey White.
Officials saw the immediate ripple effect, Mehrhof said, of delayed home arrivals because bus drivers did what they were supposed to do: Drive slowly and with extra care.
E-mails, text messages and robo-calls were made to middle school and elementary school parents alerting them to the delayed departures times, but many parents said on social media postings those messages should have been sent out earlier and with more detail.
“Drivers were very cautious in bringing students home,” said Mehrhof. “Yes, that caused delayed dismissals for the middle school and then the elementary schools.”
Mehrhof praised the professionalism of bus drivers, stressing they did a fabulous job with challenging road conditions.
In a public letter posted on the district’s Web site, www.mw.k12.ny.us on Wednesday afternoon, Mehrhof added: “Our district invests in hiring highly skilled employees who are expertly trained and we provide them with the best buses and equipment to do their jobs. They all did a great job and every one of our students was safely transported to their homes.”
School Board president acknowledges complaints
Monroe-Woodbury School Board President Eleni Carter said she and other members of the School Board fielded numerous complaints from parents about the district's decision to remain open on Tuesday during the snow storm.
While the decision to remain open or close rests with the superintendent of schools, not with the school board, Carter said she and other board members were concerned about Superintendent Edward Mehrhof's decision.
"The safety of our children must be our priority," Carter said during a telephone interview Thursday morning.
Accidents
Mehrhof said three incidents happened during students’ transport home.
The first involved a high school bus near the Bright Star Diner. The driver, he said, pulled close to the right side of the road to allow students to get off the bus. But the bus became lodged in the shoulder area of the road. Rather than attempt to reposition the bus with students onboard, the driver opted to request assistance and a replacement bus.
The same issue happened with a North Main Elementary bus, Mehrhof said, with that driver also requesting assistance and a replacement bus.
The third incident was “minor fender bender” involving a high school student who skidded into an empty bus by Reynolds Road in Monroe, he said.
But Mehrhof expressed displeasure over false information posted on Facebook, saying a photograph posted showing a bus laying on its side in the snow is not a M-W bus or even a New York State bus.
“It saddens me that people would post false information on social media, which only causes more anxiety,” he said. “It (getting kids home during inclement weather) only works if everybody in the system does their job and stays calm. All these postings do is make people anxious, and not calm, and it doesn’t help the situation. It’s pretty horrible that someone would do that. ”
White, Assistant Superintendent Brian Monahan and IT Director Hugh Cauthers rode with students on select buses.
“The idea was to get a sense of what it was like and to get a sense of road conditions,” said White.
On Wednesday morning, district officials sent coffee and doughnuts to the bus garage as an additional way of expressing gratitude. The individual schools also offered their thanks in different ways as well.
Building administrators, he added, remained onsite until each knew every child “was delivered home.”
Mehrhof said on Wednesday morning his office received about 30 telephone calls and about 50 e-mails from angry parents offering opinions about what happened the prior day.
There were also untold numbers of comments on Facebook, ranging from displeasure over the district’s actions – or inactions - to those which almost vilified district officials.
“All the kids got home safe,” Mehrhof said. “I’m upset it was later (than normal), but the roads were not good. It was extremely stressful. Last week (with last week’s snowfall) I thought we made a great call. Yesterday, I wasn’t happy with how it turned out. But storms are unpredictable. It’s always a difficult decision.”
In his letter, Mehrhof also said there was no merit to stories circulating about the district allegedly keeping school open in order to not use snow days or keep state aid.
“I want to dispel some rumors about what influences our decisions to close, delay or dismiss school early,” he wrote. “There has been some misinformation that these decisions are driven by ‘saving snow days’ or by ‘state aid considerations.’ I want to reassure you, the decision to close school is based on student safety. We balance that with our mission to educate children. However, we deeply regret the anxiety and inconvenience that this storm had on our community.”
This story was reported and written by Nancy Kriz. Bob Quinn contributed reporting to it.