Factors In Canceling School Due To Weather by Abby Neuens
Even though students are beginning to expect snow days as a result of the hazardous weather, most people don’t understand the criteria behind canceling school. Mr. Neidlinger said the decision to cancel or not all relies on “the safety and security of students and families. Often it is fine for a car to travel through the snow and/or ice, but a school bus is a very different machine. It’s a far less predictable vehicle, so we have to be really careful to make sure that our bus students can get to and from school safely.”
Some conditions that could cause the roads to become too risky for the buses to make it are drifting snow, ice, or freezing cold temperatures. Snowdrifts can pile up to multiple feet high on the roads between Saugatuck and Holland, which is a route many students are forced to take to and from school. They cause unpredictable road conditions, leading to risks that many schools won’t take. Another, bigger reason is ice on the roads. As Mr. Neidlinger said, even if a car can safely travel through the icy conditions, buses are much bigger and harder to control. There is a chance schools can call a two-hour delay, but the majority of the time they just cancel.
Another, albeit extremely rare, reason to call a snow day would be for frigid temperatures. Even though the state of Michigan does not have any official regulations for calling a snow day due to temperature, most schools near Saugatuck will call when it feels like -20 to -25 for a sustained period of time, which usually seems to mean three hours. With temperature, schools will also look at other weather conditions going on to see if they will begin to react with the freezing cold temps in order to create even more dangerous conditions. Low temperatures can also begin to mess with engines in cars or buses, causing more problems getting to and from school. Temperatures can also cause the salt on the roads to stop working as well, leading to ice staying on the roads.
Hopefully students now know what weather conditions to look out for in order to be able to predict snow days more accurately.
Some conditions that could cause the roads to become too risky for the buses to make it are drifting snow, ice, or freezing cold temperatures. Snowdrifts can pile up to multiple feet high on the roads between Saugatuck and Holland, which is a route many students are forced to take to and from school. They cause unpredictable road conditions, leading to risks that many schools won’t take. Another, bigger reason is ice on the roads. As Mr. Neidlinger said, even if a car can safely travel through the icy conditions, buses are much bigger and harder to control. There is a chance schools can call a two-hour delay, but the majority of the time they just cancel.
Another, albeit extremely rare, reason to call a snow day would be for frigid temperatures. Even though the state of Michigan does not have any official regulations for calling a snow day due to temperature, most schools near Saugatuck will call when it feels like -20 to -25 for a sustained period of time, which usually seems to mean three hours. With temperature, schools will also look at other weather conditions going on to see if they will begin to react with the freezing cold temps in order to create even more dangerous conditions. Low temperatures can also begin to mess with engines in cars or buses, causing more problems getting to and from school. Temperatures can also cause the salt on the roads to stop working as well, leading to ice staying on the roads.
Hopefully students now know what weather conditions to look out for in order to be able to predict snow days more accurately.