Snowstorm a mess for school districts
A snowstorm that arrived earlier than Denver-area school officials expected created messes for parents and teachers as districts across the metro area initially tried to conduct business as usual Tuesday.
Jonah Landeck, a senior at DSST Montview in Denver, used snowshoes to get to school. He said he normally would walk or drive, but didn’t feel safe behind the wheel Tuesday morning. Another student’s dad got stuck in the snow during drop-off, he said.
“If I drove today, I probably could have killed myself,” Landeck said.
By late morning, when Denver already had received multiple inches of snow, seven districts had decided to release students early. Douglas County School District ran the buses at the usual time, but allowed parents to come and get their kids in advance.
On social media, some parents vented at DPS and other districts for not closing — or even implementing delayed starts as they’d done Monday. Others shared tales of kids waiting for long-delayed buses, or said they kept their children home because they felt the roads were unsafe.
Some teachers posted about low attendance in their schools, and one woman who identified herself as a teacher at Monarch Montessori of Denver said an assistant at the school was in a car crash while trying to get to work.
Shirley Harris, who said she has a child attending DPS, decided it wasn’t safe to get to school, even though the district was open.
“My child is not going to be the reason that a teacher or other staff risk their life to get to a school,” she said in a Facebook post.
Not everyone was upset by the decision to hold school. Some thought parents were getting too worked up over a routine snowstorm. Others, like Shaleen Moore DeStefano, posted that some parents rely on schools to keep their children safe while they work.
“We need to remember that not all families are privileged enough to stay home. Also, don’t forget that many DPS kids rely on their school to provide the only meals they may get each day,” she said in a comment on the DPS Facebook page.
Kids who did come to school didn’t always find things running smoothly, however.
Todd Neff, who has daughters attending East High School and Hill Campus of Arts & Sciences, said his younger daughter, an eighth-grader, reported students were waiting in the auditorium for the first two hours of the school day because their teachers couldn’t get through the snow. The middle schoolers worked on their Chromebooks until enough teachers arrived, but ultimately had only two classes before DPS dismissed early because of the forecast, he said.
Middle and high school students were dismissed at noon in DPS schools, with elementary and K-8 schools following at 2 p.m. Kids also got out early in Adams 12 Five Star Schools, Aurora Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District, Englewood Schools, Littleton Public Schools, Mapleton Public Schools and Sheridan School District.
Abbe Smith, spokeswoman for the Cherry Creek School District, said the superintendent and administrative team decided to close early based on the forecast for heavier snow later in the afternoon. Kids were excused if their parents decided to pick them up early, and the district encouraged those who could to do so, she said.
Douglas County School District decided to do a “soft release,” where parents could pick up their children starting at 2 p.m., or give older kids permission to drive themselves home early.
District spokeswoman Paula Hans said administrators determined it was safe to give parents the choice of whether to get their kids early.
Districts said the snow arrived earlier than expected, so that by the time road conditions began to deteriorate, it was too late to cancel school.
The DPS superintendent had to make the decision by 4:30 a.m., so the communications office could notify parents by around 5 a.m., district spokesman Will Jones said. They had decided to cancel after-school activities, based on the forecast that snow would start in the afternoon, but the roads were safe at the time they had to make the call, he said.
“As of 5 o’clock this morning, we were on a normal schedule,” he said.
Cari Bowen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the snow wasn’t substantially earlier than forecasted.
The Denver area was under a winter storm warning starting at 6 a.m. Tuesday, and the NWS predicted difficult travel conditions in the morning, she said.
“That was when we expected to see that take effect,” she said.
Some school districts announced Tuesday night that they would be closed Wednesday, including Adams 12 and Adams 14.
Neff, who has two children attending Denver schools, said he questioned the decision to hold school when he was up taking care of the family’s dog at 5 a.m. and saw heavy snow starting.
Snow days are difficult for some families because they need to arrange child care and meals, but sometimes closing school is the safest thing, he said.
“I understand it’s a tough decision, but I think they blew it this time,” he said.