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GothamSchools — daily independent reporting on NYC public schools
department of timing
March 2, 2009
Some commutes had already begun when city called snow day
A Brooklyn road this morning.
Schools Chancellor Joel Klein made the official decision to close the New York City schools this morning, at 20 minutes before 6 o’clock. That was in time for TV news stations to declare the news by 5:50 a.m., but too late for some teachers to sleep in — especially those who’d already begun their morning commutes.
Here’s some of the testimonials NYC Educator collected after asking where his readers were when they heard the snow day news:
“I was freezing my ass off at a bus stop waiting for a 36 bus to take me to school.”
“I was already on the road from LI when the wife called. I was certain she misheard - so I didn’t turn around until 1010 said the same a minute or two later.”
“I was just about to leave for school and got about 3 text messages at once. A whole morning of checking the news and I got the most important news via text message… go figure.”
NYC Educator points out that his children’s school district, in a suburb outside the city, alerted his family to the news the night before, via a phone message. “There was nothing that changed, or was going to change, so dramatically between 4:00 and 6:00 that warranted such a long wait,” one of his readers writes. “I’m not saying he needed to announce it last night, but 4 or 5 in the morning would’ve been considerate.”
Department of Education spokeswoman Melody Meyer, who had the privilege of delivering the good news to reporters (I got my e-mail at 6:35 a.m.), says the system made the decision in the morning deliberately, after spending the night consulting with sanitation workers and bus companies to scope out the situation. “We need to take input into the morning driving conditions, and we can’t do that until the morning,” Meyer told me.
The timing does not seem to be unique to Klein. Eric Nadelstern, the city’s chief schools officer and a longtime DOE employee, said he’s never heard of a snow day being announced before 6 a.m. in the city. And he’s been in the system for 37 years.
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March 2nd, 2009 2:29 pm
It’s ironic that, “It’s always been done that way,” would be the best excuse uttered by the “reformers.” In fact, the city has closed schools with advance notice, at least once for a hurricane in the mid 80s, and possibly once for snow when Levy was chancellor. Maybe someone remembers better than I do.
In any case, with schools opening as early as 7 AM, it’s preposterous for Chancellor Klein to claim, as I heard him do on the news this morning, he was being considerate of parents with kids. Being considerate would entail allowing them time to either find caretakers or call in themselves to stay home with their kids.
We didn’t know a whole lot more at 5 AM than we did at 4, and a million school kids and their parents, not to mention 80,000 teachers, merit at least the same consideration their neighbors got. 37 years of indifference is hardly a compelling defense.
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March 2nd, 2009 2:36 pm
“The timing does not seem to be unique to Klein. Eric Nadelstern, the city’s chief schools officer and a longtime DOE employee, said he’s never heard of a snow day being announced before 6 a.m. in the city. And he’s been in the system for 37 years.”
BS. There was a Noreaster back in 2003 that they called the night before, around 8pm. Their announcement was way too late today.
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March 2nd, 2009 2:52 pm
Yes, I remember that earlier snow day being called the night before - and then the city got maybe 1/2 inch of snow. If the call had been made earlier, school would have been on for sure. The irony was that the following week (or maybe two weeks later?) there was a much bigger storm, but no delay or day off. My sense at the time was that it was about saving face because of the previous mistake.
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March 2nd, 2009 2:57 pm
Kelly, I believe those were consecutive days.
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March 2nd, 2009 2:57 pm
Evidence of earlier call: look at the date stamp on this post: http://msfrizzle.blogspot.com/2004/01/snow-day.html
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March 2nd, 2009 3:27 pm
[...] Educator was shoveling his driveway. Pissedoff teacher was up for school, but had not yet left. Gotham Schools reports that commutes had already begun. Chaz [...]
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March 2nd, 2009 4:09 pm
There was a time, back in March of 2000 or March of 2001, when the decision was made the night before. And the snow ended up being not nearly as bad as predicted. My commute is an hour under perfect conditions; I leave at 5:45 because I like to be early and parking is much harder now that most of us don’t have passes. Luckily, I decided to call in even though I felt badly. But when seemingly every other district in the surrounding area was closed, why did they think they had to wait so long?
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March 2nd, 2009 7:37 pm
Boston Public Schools announced that school was going to be closed on Monday at 3 pm on Sunday.
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March 2nd, 2009 8:20 pm
I remember it the same way as Jonathan. Snow day called the night before for a nor’easter that never materialized as predicted. But THEN…the storm hit the next night and there was school in a horrible storm anyway!
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