Do you want to have a snow day?

Wow! How 'bout that snow folks?

I've live in Pascoland more the 163 years and I've never seen anything like this! Every morning I wake up and wonder if I've died and gone to Spokane.

Many places are use to snow. They have fancy things like shovels, and coats,  and plows.  

Let's be honest, we are not one of those places.  We have swimming pools and boats. 

We are not snow people.

We are sand people.

So when bad weather happens it kinda throws us all into a tizzy. And when bad weather keeps happening for weeks on end..... well.....

And it's in this state of panicked frenzy that we all start second guessing the decision of whether to cancel school or not. Facebook is filled with armchair quarterbacks casting doubts on just how bad the weather is, what is best for other people's children, and how much this is really costing the taxpayers.

So who decides when the weather is bad enough to cancel school?

According to the district website it's the superintendent, but there are a lot of other people helping her out with this task.  If you click here (PSD Bad Weather Policy) you can read a surprisingly well written explanation of the school cancellation procedure. I encourage you to read it if you haven't yet.

In the end, however this policy still comes down to a judgement call. A call that affects thousands and thousands of people (nearly the entire population of Pasco).  Someone has to make that call. And that someone is NOT you. So be grateful.

It's good to be concerned. It's good to have opinions. It's good to seek solutions.  In fact I regularly advocate for all of these activities.

But.....

Can we be nice? Can we be careful?   Can we relax just a little bit?

Are we wasting money when we send kids to school on a two hour delay, and only half of them show up, so we are spending 100% of a days resources on 50% of our kids? Sure.  So what?  What is the alternative? Only holding school on days we are absolutely positive that 99% of students will show up? That's not possible. Kids are unpredictable. Weather is unpredictable.  Kids AND weather combined are a whole other level of crazy.

 

I get that this is screwing up everyone's daycare.

I get that it is hard to have your munchkins cooped up at home for another day (take a moment and have pity on that poor kindergarten teacher who has indoor recess with 26 five-year-olds).

Maybe your road isn't that snowy and you're wondering why school is canceled. Trust me, there are plenty of other roads out there that are completely impassable.

Maybe the weather didn't get as bad as we expected. Be grateful the district erred on the side of caution instead of stranding kids out at bus stops for an extra thrity minutes in sub-zero winds.

Maybe your head is going to explode if we have another 2-hour delay coupled with a Wednesday early-out.  Deep breath. It's going to be okay.  

My advice? Relax. Drink some cocoa.  The teachers will do their very best to teach whoever shows up whenever school starts again.  It's going to be okay.