With the holidays comes winter in Missouri and hopes of waking up one morning with the phone call that frees students from a day of school.
But as holidays pass and the air remains frigid, hopes of snow days seem to dwindle away in the unpredictable weather of the Mid-West.
As snow days remain untouched, students and parents begin to worry about the freezing temperatures that tend to reoccur and fluctuate repeatedly.
Karen Chorzal, mother of a sophomore, is concerned with the temperatures dropping below 15-10 degrees.
“It is pretty unnerving to drive by and see kids waiting for the bus stop in the freezing cold when I had just scraped [ice] off my car,” Chorzal said.
However, it is not only students waiting for the bus that the low temperature affects.
Some students, who live in close proximity to the school, must walk to school because no bus is on their route.
“I feel awful when they don’t cancel school when temperatures drop into one-digits, because some people have to walk to school because the bus doesn’t come to their house and their parents already are at work; we should have at least have a couple of “cold-days” to prevent those students from freezing,” freshman Jazmine Lich said.
Although it is not the school itself making these decisions to cancel or not to cancel school, it is the Rockwood School District’s Superintendents who have the final say.
The Superintendent must factor in the temperature currently along with the day’s potential highs and lows. With this, they try to do what is best not only for the schools, but also the students.
“I wouldn’t see where it would be too bad to have one or two days [off of school] when temperatures are unbareable and/or potentially harmful to students. If anything, maybe the schools could have a late start day so it gives a chance for the air to warm up, Chorzal said.
For more information about school cancelations due to weather and to ask questions to the Superintendent, click this link: http://www.rockwood.k12.mo.us/emergency/Pages/InclementWeather.aspx
