I'm seriously steamed! And I may be ruffling some feathers with this blog, but so be it. I need to vent.
Yesterday and today, the powers that be decided they should shut school down--the kids have been back for all of three days and they shut school down?? Are they trying to make parents crazy??
Why?
Because it is too cold for the little darlings. Give me a break.
Okay, here's the story. As we are all aware 2/3 of this country is under the deep freeze--and abnormally cold deep freeze temps. They predicted a dusting to two inches of snow, but serious windchills in the negative zone. So the school board decided that the little darlings would suffer hypothermia waiting for the school busses, so they closed school. Well, I should say that the Tulsa Public Schools (TPS) shut down, therefore the other public schools followed suit.
Anyhoo, we belong to the Union School district, not TPS. They had a plan--a pretty good one, until they had to follow the idiots at TPS. The plan was to allow children into the school at 8:15 instead of 8:45 and they would keep the kids inside at the end of the day, using a walkie-talkie to indicate which car is ready to pick up which kid. This is how they handle rainy days. It's slow, but it works.
But they had to follow the dubious lead of TPS.
Granted, I'm a stay-at-home mom and it's no skin off my nose if my kid stays home. Yeah, it puts a kink in my plans, but it's no big deal. But for parents where both parties work, someone has to lose a day of pay OR find some other baby-sitting alternative. I don't know about you all, but I think parents would rather lose an hour or two of work by 1)waiting with their kid at a bus stop, or 2) driving their kid to school and be tardy for work, instead of losing TWO WHOLE DAYS of pay!
But here's the kicker--we didn't get any precip snow or otherwise, but the local government in their supreme intelligence decided to salt the roads . . . There was NO PRECIPITATION, PEOPLE!! Zero. Zilch. Nada. Not even frost on the roads. Now, after our huge blizzard that took 2/3 of our winter salt supply and they had to dig into other funds to buy more salt.
Here's another kicker, taken from HOW STUFF WORKS:
--if the temperature of the roadway is lower than 15 F or so, then the salt really won't have any effect -- the solid salt cannot get into the structure of the solid water to start the dissolving process.
--guess what the temperature was? Just guess. Okay I'll tell you, less than 15 degrees.
--uh, they are talking about laying off 100+ policemen and firemen, and some MORON decides it's a smart idea to salt the roads when there was NO PRECIPITATION! Someone needs to get fired and it ain't the cops or firemen!
Okay, I'm done. Still ticked, but finished for the moment.
Please chime in with your thoughts--either way.
Until later, 'cause I won't be able to Write On! until next Monday when the little darling goes back to school. Oh, and then they have a four day weekend next week. Yeah, I think there needs to be some upheaval in the school boards.
I see both sides of the school's out delima, Margaret. Mannford didn't let out, and the Mannford people I know whined about it.
ReplyDeleteAbout the salt--we did have precipitation. Maybe your side of town didn't get it, but my dad was at the PAC seeing Legally Blonde, and he said the roads were "slicker than snot on a tooth" when they left downtown.
I feel for those parents who have jobs outside the home. What a hassle for them.
ReplyDeleteThey put salt down here and it wasn't slick at all. My kids are also out for 2 days. I really don't understand it. Out for cold weather. If it was -40 I could see it. But seriously. I agree with your rant, girl. Sometimes the school board is just DUH. And don't get me started about Tulsa threatening layoffs. I don't live in Tulsa, but dang, that would be so stupid. Then to waste money on roads that don't need it. Okay...grrs with Margaret. I'm done now. :P
ReplyDeleteWe're in Wis. and there's a shortage of salt. That's insane. And I bet parents will remember this the next time the school board members are elected. (they are elected, aren't they?)
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't surprise me that the north side of town got precip, while the south side didn't, Susan. The problem was the ratio of dumpage on the road for the amount of precip, or lack there of. They dumped so much that cars are still spewing up salt clouds as they drive. And that doesn't even take into consideration the salt damage to the cars.
ReplyDelete--it's the waste that ticks me off AND the lack of foresight.
Shoot, if I can look at the radar and see that we weren't getting any precip, why couldn't the yahoo in charge of the salt trucks do the same??
I'm with you, Cyndi, and feel sorry for the poor parents scrambling to find a babysitter or place their kid can go. When I worked at the hospital, you couldn't call in work when your kids had an unexpected snow day. Needless, to say there were a lot of 'sick' parents on that day, otherwise they would have been docked the day's pay. And in this current economic clime, who can afford it?
ReplyDeleteI had a feeling you would be right there, grrring with me, Kira! :-) Your kiddos are old enough that you could leave them alone for part of the day, unless they would kill each other in the process! But then, how many phone calls would you be getting?
ReplyDeleteYeah, school board is elected, Edie.
ReplyDeleteThey are just such a bunch a weinies down here. Wis. is a heck of a lot colder with more snow, and we didn't even get any snow! I think my school district had the right idea, but they caved under the thought of being 'polically correct' when TPS cancelled school.
I think closing the schools with no freezing precip is stupid. They don't realize when the kids grow up and go to work the company won't close due to the cold weather. We are NOT teaching our kids responsiblity anymore. I work in a convenience store and dont' tell one of these 20 year old darlings "NO!" they get all bent out of shape and call you ugly names expect you to just give it to them.
ReplyDeleteI so agree, Kathy.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't like the 6-8 inches of snow we got on Christmas Eve--it was just cold with negative windchills. Our school district had a decent plan in place, but caved when the biggest school district wimped out.
Shoot, now the kids won't be able to tell their kids how they trudged to school with a 100 mph wind. . . both ways. :-)
Having lived in Tulsa for 18 years, and having come from living in the Snow Belt of the USA prior to that, I attribute the city's decisions to ignorance.
ReplyDeleteTulsa simply doesn't get enough consistently frigid, snowy weather for people to become accustomed to how to handle it. In Western NY State, it was not uncommon to get 3 FEET of snow overnight and sub zero temps, and the schools were NEVER closed. People just knew how to deal with it (and DRIVE in it, thank god).
You'd probably have to have considerably more awful weather before the powers that be would get a clue. But the good news is, ignorance is curable.
You cannot, however, fix "stupid".
Thanks for your perspective, Jods. I could have forgiven over salting the road with the lack of precip IF this had been the first occasion of the season, but it wasn't.
ReplyDeleteAnd, even I could see on the weather radar that the moisture was going north of Tulsa.
--I agree, you can fix 'stupid'
I'm not sure about Tulsa, but I doubt the school board makes the decision about closing school. (Maybe they should have.)
ReplyDeleteWhen I served on the sb, we didn't make that kind of "gotta decide now" stuff. The superintendent, principals and vice principals decided.
The SB would have to call a meeting each time it snowed, and now way they're going to get out of bed at 4 am to do that. ;)
Susan
Good to know, Susan! I guess writing a letter of complaint is in my future. I still think Union had a good plan in place, but when TPS cancelled class--Union did too.
ReplyDelete