2005 Year in Review

Making a Decision - School Closings

Merle Reisenbigler and Dr. Jody Ware

“It is all about the safety of the kids,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jody Ware and Merle Reisenbigler owner of R.C. Smith Transportation both stressed Friday morning, December 16, 2005 in an interview conducted on the decision of closing or not closing school due to weather.

What some of us, including me, don’t realize is that sometimes this process starts taking place the day before. “We sent letters home with elementary students and told teachers on Tuesday to make sure they had their ducks in a row and knew where the students would go if there was early release, late start or no school at all,” stated Dr. Ware. “We received a lot of compliments from parents, thanking the teachers for reminding them (the parents) to tell their child where to go if school got out early.”

Dr. Ware also shared, “The high school had three different schedules prepared. We did a one-hour late start, a two-hour late start and an early release schedule, because the high school is preparing for finals. We also have to prepare for the students who attend the second block of WACC in Sterling. The decision starts way before any storm or latent snow comes. We constantly watch the weather. We are always gathering information.” This was evident even Friday morning as the police scanner could be heard in the background and Merle’s computer was up and running.

Merle has 35 years of experience with the bus company. Dr. Ware shared her respect for Merle’s experience by stating, “Merle is very knowledgeable. He knows the community well. He also knows the country roads well. He has a good relationship with many of the departments and road commissioners. On inclement weather days we are working with the city and county departments so they know what our plan is. If they know we are going to let the buses roll at 3 p.m. They are out plowing at 2 p.m.” The same goes if there is a delay or early release.

Meanwhile, while Merle is driving the roads and communicating with road commissioners, Dr. Ware is on the phone. “I am gathering information from other districts and what they’re doing,” added Dr. Ware. “I set my alarm for 3 a.m. I get up at 3 and just check to see if it has even started snowing. I’ll walk around outside to get the total accumulation. A lot of times there isn’t a flake of snow anywhere around us. As was the case three weeks ago. You just can’t predict sometimes, until it happens. Then I get up at 4 a.m. and we start the phone calling. I am in contact with school authorities from River Bend, Erie and Prophetstown.” Dr. Ware was also in contact with Dean Wallace the Morrison District Director of Facilities for the schools, at 4 a.m. “Mr. Wallace drives to Morrison from Northern Clinton, Iowa. His route consists of taking the Fulton bridge to Rt. 30. Then he takes Hillside or Garden Plain to Morrison so he can witness first hand, the condition of the highways and country roads. Many times some of the roads have not even been plowed. People have to realize that the plows will be out before the buses leave.”

“At 5 a.m. we watch the television and start getting the crawlers on the screen of other schools that are closing in the area. You can see where the closings are really concentrated. With this most recent snowfall, most of the Quad Cities area was hit harder than us and so their schools had a two-hour delay. The heavy snow path headed more north towards Dubuque. This last time (December 14) River Bend based their decision on Clinton Schools being closed and the roads along the river. That would sound pretty funny if Morrison was closing because Clinton closed since their district boundaries do not join with Morrison. Erie closed because Port Byron closed. Superintendents of Erie and Port Byron closed because of road conditions near Cordova. Again, closing based on that premise would sound pretty ridiculous,” added Ware.

Dr. Ware usually has two phones to her ear at the same time on inclement weather days. Dr. Ware is always in contact with Merle, who is out driving the roads, around 5 a.m.

Merle Reisenbigler shared, “I had drivers out all night when I talked to Jody on Wednesday morning. Railroad guys had been from Rochelle to Boone, Iowa. I had cars that had been to O’Hare, Midway and Moline Airports and none of them had reported experiencing any problems. Had any of them said, ‘Hey I’m in the ditch someplace’ or ‘boy did I have trouble, there’s 100’s of cars in the ditch it’s so icy, you shouldn’t go out.’ then we’re not going to go. But it wasn’t that way. You still have to take the normal risks of winter or we’ll be having school only in the summer time,” stated Reisenbigler. “Sometimes I am driving down roads that cars have not been through and if I get to a spot that I have to put the vehicle in four-wheel drive and plow my way through, then I start thinking a little differently. No, I don’t want a bus out there because it could get stuck.”

“I call inclement weather days Trump Day or Amnesty Day,” stated Dr. Ware. “When a parent thinks that the safety of the child would be better for him or her at home, they have the right to trump my decision and keep them at home. However, I have to keep in mind that some parents are still going to work that day. Wednesday morning, roads were not being closed. The sheriff’s department was not telling us to stay off the highways. Merle does that communication in the morning. So we have a lot going on and we have to make our decision in a timely manner so parents have an opportunity to plan what to do with younger children. We have to remember that we have 600 children that by law should not be left home alone. We find out sometimes that kids are safer if they get on a bus and get to school. I also work with the school secretaries. They are told that any student that comes in late, a high school student that drove and is late, or a parent dropped them off late is excused. We even had a teacher’s meeting at the high school on Wednesday morning. Mrs. Ward told the teachers to not worry about getting to the meeting on time, but to just get here safe. We do make the decision about cancellation or late start based on the students, not necessarily where our staff lives. Often times we suggest that a staff member stay overnight in town.” Ware stressed. “We know that people make choices where they work. They make choices where they live. And they make choices in what region of the country they are going to live. We know that we are going to have snow in Morrison, Illinois. We have to keep a very open mind and be very flexible and adaptable. Again, the number one factor is the safety of the kids. We have to count our blessings that we have so many people working in the Morrison community and county working with each other providing information to Merle and me on days that are questionable.”

Temperatures are another factor that has to be taken into consideration when making the decision. We have to forecast whether the temperatures are going to warm up or drop down. This affects the road conditions and the safety of children. The weather forecast for Wednesday was predicted to be warmer. “We knew we weren’t going to lose fingers, ears and toes due to frostbite. So we had to take all of those things into consideration. And, again we have to make that decision quickly so parents have time to plan what to do with their child if school is closed,” said Ware.

Other items that come into play is the district’s parking lots have to be cleared prior to teachers arriving to work. Some of the teachers and students arrive around 7 a.m. The cooks who prepare breakfasts for the children begin cooking at 6 a.m. If school is not cancelled until 6:30 the food that has been prepared has to be discarded. The district cook and baker are two other people that Dr. Ware has to communicate with prior to 5:30 a.m. when they are driving to work.

When the possibility of early dismissal arises, the decision is made by 10:30 a.m. “This past Wednesday, Dean Wallace and I were out on the roads at 10 a.m We put the truck in two-wheel drive because we also have to take into consideration that many of our students drive two-wheel drive cars. I wanted to experience what these kids would be driving in under the same conditions.”

Yet another aspect taken into consideration is that people are used to seeing buses at certain times of the day, whether it be in the morning or afternoon. “I have argued it even in the fog” stated Reisenbigler. “If you keep to the schedule, for instance, when people are used to seeing buses, they are just kind of subconscious of a bus stop. But if you are out there at 1 p.m. in the afternoon in a snowstorm or fog and there’s a bus, your thoughts go to, why in the world is there a bus out here at this time?” Again, it is safer for the students to be in a routine.

“We set ourselves up for risks such as accidents and missing children when we change the routine,” stated Ware.”

Ware added that R.C. Smith has an excellent bus driving staff. “We have an excellent bus driving staff that knows where kids are to be picked up and where they are to be dropped off. If you change the schedule with a delayed start, some kids run to grandma’s house and the bus doesn’t stop at grandma’s. The driver stops at the house and there’s no kid. The driver wants to know where the student is. Then the bus gets to school and after the teacher reports the student absent, the school secretary wants to know where these kids are. We call home and there’s no answer. It’s a horrible feeling when we don’t know where a student is. When you break the routine, you are at more risk of accidents and losing a student. It is all about the safety of the children.”

Ware finally added that making an inclement weather decision is one of those tasks a superintendent has to face. Every single superintendent in this region goes through it year after year. “I know in this position I cannot make everyone happy with my weather decisions. I also know there are people telling me that they are so glad that I had school on Wednesday. However, I always put it back on the parent. If they really believe there should not be school then they have the right to make that decision and keep that student home. It’s a tough decision to make in a very short timeframe.”

Merle Reisenbigler’s experience came out when he shared the historical perspective of State of Illinois school emergency days. Merle shared, “Snow days have lost their perspective completely. There is a big difference from a snow day in the 1950’s, a snow day in the 80’s and a snow day now,” said Merle. “Our main obligation is to get the kids to and from the school safely. Snow days originated back in the time when the snow banks were so bad you couldn’t get to school. The highway department or the sheriff’s office said we do not recommend travel on a road. If the highway department said, we are pulling our plows off. We won’t be maintaining the roads. Then you had a snow day."

As stated earlier, road commissioners are on alert as to when school will be dismissing so they can clear roads before the buses need to get through. They, too, know where the trouble spots are going to be.

“The attendance was normal that day. A parent from the Malvern Road area called. I told the mom that this was her choice and that she could trump my decision anytime. I also shared that I understood that her northern most part of the district was going to be one of the last to get plowed. This mother couldn’t get out of her lane let alone out to the highway. We also had some parents call at 1 p.m. and said they wanted us to send their child home, who drove, and we released them. Again the parents made the decision. Honestly, the roads were worse at 1 p.m. than they were at 3 p.m. because the township and county road crews were out at 2:00 p.m.,” added Ware.

“I think that when people know that we do approach this in the wee hours of the morning and it is approached, I would like to say, professionally, and we have, our judgment, and also the judgment of the people in the surrounding districts saying, what are we going to do,” added Merle. “If everybody else says they’re not going, we’re not going regardless of what we think.”

Dr. Ware stressed how important it was for parents and students to seek information on school closings, delays or early dismissal by listening to the radio, the local television stations and on the Morrison Schools web page. If there is a snow day there will be a snowplow running across the top that is dated and contains information on the Morrison web page at www.morrisonschools.org Click Here. There is also local weather on this page from the National Weather service, which contains a seven-day forecast and current weather conditions in Morrison. The schools are constantly watching this weather indicator page to find out where the storms are at, when they will hit and if they will hit. You can also get to the School web page through thecity1.com Links at the top of our home page.

I hope this has been an informational story for everyone. I know I learned a lot from talking with these two individuals. I, too, always wondered how an inclement weather decision was made. I was like many of you who thought it was strictly between R.C. Smith and the school but as we have all found out there are a whole lot of other people involved. But the final decision still lies in the parents’ hands as to whether or not their child attends school that day. Personally I have always trusted the judgment of whether or not there was school.

I commend the ones who have to make these decisions but I also would like to give a round of applause to the bus drivers for dealing with so many children on these buses and being able to drive in these conditions.

Drive slow --it’s a winter day.

by Dawn Zuidema, theCity1.com
December 20, 2005