Snow Day Call

On Valentine's Day 2014 the Eastern Townships School Board chose to keep its schools and centres open despite forecasts of a major storm with heavy snow and high wind. Along with other school boards in the area of southern Quebec it has been severly criticized in social and public media for this decision in light of the storm which dropped from 15 to 25 centimetres of snow on its territory accompanied by winds gusting to 60 km/hr. Roads were difficult and some busses and staff failed to reach school while others struggled in late. Tempers were frayed. Complaints poured into schools blaming them for putting children and personnel at risk. Broadcast media interviewed board personnel demanding justification. As chairman of the ETSB council of commissioners (trustees) I was consulted by administrators as events unfolded and endorsed their choices.

We made a mistake. We apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced, put at risk or who suffered unnecessary stress or fatigue. We made a tough call based on ambiguous information and it turned out wrong. In previous situations similar to this one we have been severely criticized for closing schools without sufficient justification.

It is never easy to close schools because it creates hardship for parents who must arrange for child care at the last possible minute. Some end up losing a day of pay staying home to care for their children. We never lightly impose that kind of hardship on parents despite the universal glee of students at the proclamation of a snow day. We are also conscious of the rapidity of snow clearing across our territory and the resilience of Quebecers accustomed to winter driving. We also know that weather forecasting is inexact, particularly as in this instance when the storm track shifted repeatedly, making it far from certain that our territory would be seriously impacted. In fact, our neighboring school boards to the west and north were only marginally impacted.

The process of declaring a snow day is also exhaustive. It begins with weather forecasts several days in advance. ETSB is fortunate to employ an administrator who is an enthusiast and who assumes the role of our early warning system by monitoring a number of weather models. We were alerted early in the week of an impending storm and followed the evolution closely. It was never clear just where it would strike our region and how severely. At 4:30 am on February 14th, current conditions and the latest forecasts were assessed by transport officials and senior administrators. Bus drivers arriving for work shortly after 5 am were polled for information on conditions, both weather and road. Even by 6 am when the first busses were warming up in preparation to roll out there was no snow falling and no indication of imminent severe conditions. Moreover the forecasts were unanimous that any storm would abate early in the afternoon, indicating that the return home would not be challenging. Administrators consulted with their counterparts at other boards sharing our territory who unanimously indicated their intention to remain open. Faced with that combination of input, the decision was taken to keep ETSB schools open and busses rolled.

By 8 am the blizzard struck with heavy snow. Wind did not become strong until later but already it was evident that the choice had been the wrong one. By that time busses were arriving at some schools and it would have been irresponsible to turn them around. Parents would already have left home secure in the knowledge that we were taking care of their children. Some students were kept home and some staff did not make it into school. Those who did rose magnificently to the challenge, assuming double workloads. Of course there was grumbling and irritation but it didn't prevent our personnel from providing a good day's education to those students who were present.

Happily the second part of the forecast proved accurate. The storm drew to a close in the afternoon although winds continued to whip the newly fallen snow around. Students were returned safely home and exhausted personnel left for a well-earned weekend of rest and recovery. I want to thank them all for their commitment and dedication. They certainly lived up to the high standards of ETSB educators. I want to extend a further note of personal apologies and support to school secretaries, some of whom suffered unjustified criticism and even verbal abuse from callers complaining about the board's decision to keep schools open. Secretaries are certainly not accountable for such decisions and it seems outrageous to me that anyone should subject them to abuse in such circumstances. They deserve our support, our sympathy and our appreciation for the role they play as the first and often most significant line of contact with parents and families of our students.

A final word for those often forgotten heroes of the road, our bus drivers. They are our ambassadors who take charge of children in the morning, the first school board representative parents and children see each day, and of course the last as well. They help us understand the vagaries of weather, supervise and discipline groups of children often as numerous as three or even four class groupings, and successfully deliver them over tough rural roads and crowded urban streets. Thank-you all.