Schools closing for cold temperatures

[ikojo]

A lot of school districts around the St Louis metropolitan area closed today because the air temperature got down to around zero and five below today. The windchill was around -15.

I grew up in Springfield IL and I cannot recall ever not going to school because it was too cold.

What do people in Minnesota, North and South Dakota and Wyoming do when it gets cold? Is school canceled in the winter?

When these kids grow up they can't call the boss and say "it's too cold so I'm taking a snow day."

[LaraMN]

1. My kids' schools were closed (In N. MN) today.

It was -40 with the windchill, and I was a little surprised school was canceled. It takes a pretty cold day.

[Left Is Write]

6. When my daughter was still going to school in Minnesota, I think the threshold

was 40 or 50 below with windchill.

[rurallib]

2. I am an old guy in Iowa - school never was cancelled in the 50s

But things are different. We had -25 last night, a high of -11 today and are expecting record cold tonite. When kids must wait for the bus or walk to school, it is not a bad idea to cancel, I think.

[lizziegrace]

3. They were closed here in Milwaukee

30-40 below windchills this morning. I heard on the news that the concern was that bus drivers might not show up (or buses might not start) or be late and children would be left standing in the bitter cold for a bus that doesn't show up.

I grew up in Cincinnati and show days were rare. I remember waiting at a bus stop (out of sight of our house) for over an hour in the bitter cold. We finally walked home and my mom had to drive us. I don't remember if the school marked us tardy for that day.

[Lavender Brown]

4. I was in agony at the bustop this morning (I take the bus to work)

and it is warm here in NY in comparison to other parts of the country. I don't know how young kids do it in those areas where it is that cold. :scared:

[demmiblue]

16. Especially if they have to walk to school!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. It's been a few years since we've had a winter like this

Children (and their parents) aren't as savvy about cold as they were in the 1980s and before when it was normal to have a stretch of time when the temps didn't go above zero Fahrenheit.

I walked to school and back when it was 36 below, resulting in my glasses being frozen to my face. However, I had parents who had grown up with those kinds of winter temperatures and knew how to dress me for it. We closed only if a blizzard made the roads impassible, which happened at least once per winter. On one memorable occasion, we were out for three days, because the geniuses on the town's snow removal crew had parked their plows in an open field and couldn't find them.

This morning I looked on a local TV station's website and saw that my former school district was closed for cold temperatures (-22).

(Put on grumpy old lady voice): Today's kids are a bunch of wimps!...

[Left Is Write]

7. In Minnesota, you go to school when it's 0 or 5 degrees. You might have inside recess,

but you go to school.

I went to Minnesota public schools from kindergarten through high school graduation, and I don't recall an especially large number of snow days in all those years.

[mwooldri]

8. I remember my school closing for cold weather...

... at 34 degrees F.

The heating broke down, couldn't be fixed for 2 days.

Mark

[AwakeAtLast]

9. Attendance records are meticulously kept to satisfy NCLB

and there is not much leeway for excuses, even for weather, so schools make the decision to close rather than have a lot of students just not show up. Attendace percentage gets reported along with test scores. If it goes down, so does your outcome. NCLB at its best!

[undeterred]

10. Cancelled in Wisconsin today.

Its minus fourteen. They cancel more often for snow than temperature.

[oshyposhy]

20. most are closed tomorrow as well

And the Oshkosh parents are in an uproar about makeup days...none are built in to the calendar.

The wind chill has dipped to -45 degrees.

[madrchsod]

11. yesterday was a half day---they get state funds for 5 hours or more

this morning it was around 27 below plus wind chill so they closed all day. tomorrow is anyones guess.

i must say it was cold in northern illinios this morning.

[Godhumor]

12. Almost every school district in cold areas have a "cold day" schedule

Most schools will close when wind chill hits somewhere between -15 and -25, depending on the area. I remember my high school doing this way back in the early 90s, so it has been around for awhile.

I believe the reasoning is that at -15 it takes approximately 10 minutes for frostbite to develop on exposed skin, and there was fear of student safety either walking or waiting for the bus.

[Orrex]

13. My school district had a myth that a certain low temperature meant automatic day off

Never materialized, and we had days where the temp was below zero without the wind chill.

That was eastern Pennsylvania about an hour north of Philly.

:shrug:

But my son's school district is closed tomorrow, as are several neighboring districts.

That's in western Pennsylvania, about an hour north of Pittsburgh.

:shrug:

[LibertyLover]

14. 15 or so years ago it was really cold in Washington DC, similar to

the weather now. It was so cold that the Potomac had frozen and it was difficult to get barges up the river with coal and oil for the power plants. Added to the cold was a nasty ice storm that made walking, driving and just about anything else extremely difficult. It was so bad that the mayor of DC at the time, Sharon Pratt Dixon, closed the city down in order to lessen the drain on the power grid. All non-essential personnel in both the public and private sectors were ordered to stay home. I was working in a private law firm at the time and was ordered in to work. Our building had a generator and the firm had it fired up. We had some electricity in our office, good for a few lights and a few computers. It was cold and miserable and when the sun went down I couldn't see to proof read any more. But I was told that I had to stay 'in case the power comes back on'. Finally about 9 pm I was released. It sucked. But the firm got reported to the city and was fined.

[hedgehog]

15. I think a lot of it depends on how well equipped people in the area are.

A 40 degree day in Miami would be a problem, who has a heavy coat?

[Radical Activist]

17. that's because the superintendent

in springfield IL was an asshole who never closed school for ANYTHING.

[meow2u3]

18. I wouldn't be surprised if it was too cold to start the buses

School buses run on diesel fuel. Case in point:

http://cbs4denver.com/weatherupdates/school.buses.cold.2.887645.html

School Buses Won't Start In Extreme Cold
Reporting
Michelle Griego
DENVER (AP/CBS4) ―

Jefferson County School District officials said all of its routes wouldn't be completed. Nearly half of all buses in the district experienced a problem.

Denver area school districts reported dozens of buses used to pick up students for class were delayed or wouldn't start at all Monday morning because of the extreme cold. About a third of the 370 buses in the state's largest school district, Jefferson County, either wouldn't start or couldn't finish their routes Monday morning because of cold-related engine and fuel problems.

Temperatures across the metro area stayed well below zero during most of the morning commute.

Adams 12 School District said its buses ran one hour late because of the delays getting buses started in the cold.

[davsand]

19. It is a safety issue when the wind chill factor hits a certain point.

They use a similar sort of scale for the heat index in warm weather, however there is some concern about kids riding buses in rural areas in cold weather because when it gets this cold they can't protect the kids if the bus slides off the road and into a ditch, or if the engine dies for any reason. Think liability if some little kid gets frost bite waiting for a different bus to come collect them...

Most of our local schools here in East Central Illinois (about 90 miles from Springfield, actually!) were closed today due to the bitter cold temperatures. Most have closed tomorrow as well.



Laura