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Something Has to Change

Imagine doing your job wrong and not getting fired for it. That is what happened this winter with our Connecticut meteorologists!

I know there are many factors in making our town’s decision to have school—the superintendent of schools, the Department of Transportation—but let’s just throw it out there as common sense: If it is snowing out when we wake up, our kids don’t have school, period.

On April 2, unexpected snow made for a treacherous day for our children to go to school. As I passed a sideways bus on my commute to work that morning, it was proof not canceling was a bad call. Yet this winter we had instances of no snow falling in the morning and school was called off.

The number-one priority should be the safety of our children and teachers. Our kids wait at snowy bus stops. Our bus drivers navigate long and often un-plowed roads, our teachers commute from several towns over, and we as parents clean off cars and shovel driveways to get our kids to school. There has to be a better way. We need to make up our minds as to whether we go to school in the snow or not. The April 2 school day in the snow was a bad decision, making all those other days we had off a waste of time.

Our students and faculty are in school until the last week of June now in buildings with no air-conditioning. There certainly will be a lot of learning going on then. Something has got to change. Next year, we should take days from April break and possibly lose some holidays. It seems that deciding to have school when it snows is a risk that should never be taken.

Lynda Montesi

Madison