Following calamity days on Monday and Tuesday, students and staff returned to the building Wednesday despite a wind chill temperature of minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit at 8 a.m. and snow-packed roads.
Superintendent David Glasner said that the streets were clear enough and the temperature was high enough to return to school yesterday. “Our team is prepared to have our buildings be open. Also, being open today is in line with many other districts that are nearby,” he said.
Warrensville Heights was the only school district that borders Shaker Heights to close Wednesday.
The district has closed schools for weather reasons five times this school year: four times in January and once in November.
Glasner said that decisions whether to close schools are “balancing acts,” and that he tries to balance the importance of student safety with the loss of instructional time incurred by closures.
The district calendar exceeds the state high school minimum instructional requirement of 1,001 hours. “We are still in a relatively good position in terms of meeting state minimum hours for instruction, but, of course, that’s the floor, and we want to try and exceed that minimum if we can,” said Glasner. “It depends on grade level, but at the high school, we are in the range of seven, eight days remaining as a buffer.”
Junior Osariemen Uwaifo, a German exchange student, said she did not agree with the decision to close school Monday and Tuesday without remote instruction. “It would be more beneficial to have online learning than having the day off because we would get back to studying,” she said.
Mentor City School District students received remote assignments on Tuesday, their sixth calamity day of the school year.
Student drivers said they were concerned about road conditions. The city again reminded residents today that it is experiencing road salt shortage that limits its treatment of residential streets.
Sophomore Rachel Klein said the roads were slippery yesterday and could lead to accidents for new drivers. “When I turned onto Shaker Boulevard from my driveway, I started to spin out but caught myself,” she said.
At least one driver had an accident on South Woodland Road on the way to school Wednesday. “I heard that someone hit a pole this morning and got stuck in a snow mound,” Klein said.
Intervention Specialist Nia Chappell said that weather conditions were bad for students who don’t have transportation to school. The district does not bus high school students.
“I drove to school today, but it was tough seeing kids have to walk to school,” Chappell said.
Sophomore Colin Berg said that he noticed a change in attendance for walkers. “I don’t know anyone that walked to school, because people stayed home,” he said.
Chappell also said that she noticed lower attendance among students who walk to school. “I did not see a lot of kids walking to school because most of them stayed home,” she said.
Students who do ride buses to school also struggled Wednesday. The district sent an email to parents that morning to inform them of bus delays. “Good morning, please expect bus delays due to slippery road conditions and extreme temperatures. Please follow the BusRight app or call transportation at 216-295-4390 for updates. Thank you for your patience as we get students to school safely,” the email stated.
The district posted a notice about late buses on social media at around 10 a.m. yesterday. The post cited “staffing shortages in the Transportation Department” and advised the students may be picked up late. Adults criticizing the decision to open schools on Facebook said that they saw younger students waiting outside for half an hour for the bus and drove them to school instead. Others said they kept their children home because of the conditions.
Temperatures and wind chill values below zero are again in store for tonight. “I think we should have Friday off because of the weather,” Berg said.
According to the National Weather Service, both the temperature and wind chill will be minus 2 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow at 8 a.m.
