District reacted poorly

Published 10:23 am Friday, December 3, 2010

On Monday, the North Kitsap School District made several egregious errors in judgement.

Even with a snowstorm in the forecast and surrounding districts delaying starts or announcing early dismissal, my son’s class at Poulsbo Middle School was given to take their field trip to Seattle. When I found out they’d actually gone, I contacted the principal. I didn’t get a response, so I contacted the superintendent who said he’d look into it. When we called the school at 2:45 to see if the kids had returned in time to take the bus home, they didn’t know. We had no idea where he was until he walked in the door at 3:30.

But my son’s ill-advised field trip turned out to be the least of the District’s problems that day. The decision to let schools out at the regular times instead of at 11:30 when they received the severe winter storm warning is unbelievable. They posted on the school website that we could pick up our kids from the schools whenever we wanted but that it was safer for the kids riding district transportation to go home at the normal times.

Safer? I didn’t take my elementary kids to school because I could tell by 8 a.m. that I’d have a hard time getting them later. By 10:30 a.m., I could barely make it over Finn Hill to get my high school student. At 1:30, I didn’t make it back over the hill and had to be towed by a good Samaritan to Vinland. There were cars in the ditches just yards from the district transportation office at the bottom of Finn Hill.

We know now that children were stuck on buses and at school for hours. How many elementary students had to walk through the snow and wind in the dark to get home? How many parents were stuck on the roads, unable to get anywhere? How many parents never made it home that night?

I’m so thankful for the school staff and bus drivers who sacrificed to make sure every child got home safely. But had school let out at 11:30 like South and Central Kitsap Districts, parents would have welcomed the excuse to leave work early to be home to greet them. Over 7,000 students attend NK schools. How many fewer cars would have been on the roads Monday afternoon if school had been dismissed early?

The district failed miserably to make a safe decision for children, parents and the community.

Deborah Beddoe

Poulsbo