Kent School District officials were caught off guard by icy roads on Monday morning, prompting a two-hour delay when some students were already at or on their way to school.
The late decision had some parents upset or confused.
“I fielded a number of angry calls, letter and emails,” district spokesman Chris Loftis said Monday evening.
When snow, ice or wintery conditions are forecast, the district sends crews out beginning at about 4 a.m. to assess road conditions and make a decision about start times between 4:45 and 5 a.m., Loftis said.
Icy conditions weren’t in Monday’s forecast, so district officials didn’t learn about it until around 6 a.m. when bus drivers and other employees started traveling on the roads, Loftis said.
At 6:50 a.m., officials decided schools would be on a two-hour delay.
“That is just the worst possible scenario for us,” Loftis said. “Many of our schools start at 7 o’clock. We already had students at school and teachers at school.”
Staff was told to make accommodations for students already at school, Loftis said. But, not all students got that message.
“There were some schools where kids got to school and left and got right back on the road, which was not the optimum situation,” he said.
Loftis said he wasn’t aware of any incidents caused by the ice Monday morning.
“We were in situation where we had to make a choice between safety and inconvenience,” he said. “We knew that message going out at that time of day would cause an inconvenience. We knew there would be challenges, but we had to err on the side of safety. We are very sorry that people had that inconvenience.”
Ice was a problem for some parts of the district, such as near Kentlake High School and Cedar Heights and Northwood middle schools, while roads were clear in other areas.
Having a school district that covers almost 75 square miles can present challenges when dealing with weather conditions, Loftis said.
“Some schools are at sea level, some schools at mountain top,” he said.
After a debrief Monday afternoon, Loftis said officials stood by their decision for the two-hour delay, but were looking at ways improve communication about future delays.
Autodialer messages that go out to parents about schools closures only have options for regular schedule, two-hour delay or school closures. After Monday’s confusion, Loftis said the district plans to add another option to offer more details about why a particular decision is made.
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