School policy questioned, praised following storm

Published 9:54 am Friday, December 3, 2010

North Kitsap school buses dropped off their last student at 7 p.m. on Nov. 22, more than four hours after leaving school.

Icy conditions and blocking collisions snarled traffic that afternoon as a winter storm swept through the county. North Kitsap School District kept students for a full day of classes. Some parents criticized the district for not releasing early, others said they were glad to know their children were in a safe place.

“You are going to be blamed if you send kids home early and you are going to be blamed if you hold them in school,” said Hope Lash, Kingston Middle School PTA president.

District Transportation Director Ronald Lee said it was a decision complicated by unpredictably severe weather.

“We certainly did the best we could,” Lee said. “I have been here for 23 years and this is only the third time something like this has happened.”

The district relies on Lee’s advice when deciding whether to cancel classes. Roads were bare when Lee drove his typical route around North Kitsap at 1:30 a.m. that Monday. But conditions deteriorated rapidly by mid morning.

Keeping students for a full day, even in snowy conditions, is standard procedure for North Kitsap, because many parents work on the other side of the Puget Sound, Superintendent Rick Jones said.

At 11 a.m. the district sent an email notifying parents they could pick up their students under their own discretion.

Because of the road conditions, the last bus did not return to the bus deopt until about 10:30 p.m., Less said. If it wasn’t for all the accidents on the roads, Lee said students would have arrived earlier.

Other districts took different tacts. The South Kitsap School District released students an hour and a half early and students were home between 4 and 4:30 p.m., said Community Relations Director Aimee Warthen. Students arrived home not long after they normally do, because of the early release, she said.

Parent Deborah Beddoe did not agree with North Kitsap’s decision to hold students for a full day once they were in school. Before the year begins, parents fill out emergency contact paperwork for each student and Beddoe said she expects most parents have a contingency plan.

“We fill out these forms every year,” Beddoe said. “Just because we have families working in Seattle does not mean it should affect the entire district.”

Beddoe has three children, each in a different level of the public education program. Her youngest she kept home from school, because by the time elementary started the weather conditions had worsened. Though she would have kept all her children home, the middle and high schools started before conditions became bad.

“The craziest thing of all was my junior high student went on a field trip to Seattle,” Beddoe said.

By the time the students arrived in Seattle, students were being released from school in the area. Lee said the field trip provided its own transportation and the district school busses were not involved.

“I was frustrated, but I know for the district it is a logistical nightmare,” Beddoe said.

Meanwhile, parent Carmen Gale said she was relieved she did not have to worry about driving to pick up her students in dangerous conditions.

“As a parent, you’re trying to get yourself home,” Gale said. “Those buses are the safest place to be.”

Along with travel safety, the worry for school administration is sending students home to a locked house. It can’t be assumed that families have a plan for students being release early either, Jones said.

“Our hands are tied in situations like that,” Jones said of the weather conditions.

Because of the number of parents that commute to Seattle to work, if school is already in session when a storm hits the typical procedure is to keep students until the end of the day. On Nov. 22 parents were given the option to pick up their students if they could.

“I think the storm caught us all by surprise,” Gale said.

The district administration will hold a meeting to discuss how the storm was handled by next week. The administration will discuss possible alternatives to the district’s policy, Jones said.