To Close School or Not to Close School

The media treated yesterday's storm as if it were a holiday.

Newscasts were loaded with video of kids and parents sledding and building snowmen and having all sorts of winter fun.

"Send us your photos!"

The storm that caused the Milwaukee Public Schools to cancel classes, a rarity, was being reflected upon with the focus on the fun. You'd never know that this was a dangerous storm by watching news reports.

Even though the extreme danger didn't materialize, there was controversy over school closings.

Parents in the Elmbrook school district were irate because those schools remained open.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Elmbrook School Superintendent Matt Gibson was lambasted and praised Tuesday after he bucked a trend and kept the district's schools open despite the avalanche of closings throughout the Milwaukee area.

After virtually every other public school district and most parochial schools closed, the phones rang off the hook at Elmbrook. At some schools 20% to 30% of parents kept their children home due to the forecast mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain. And many others picked up their children early.

At Fairview South, a cooperative special education school Elmbrook operates that serves students from several area counties, 74% of students did not attend.

Gibson said staying open was a difficult decision to make, but the forecast and road conditions within Elmbrook's boundaries did not appear to warrant a closure.

"There probably aren't any right decisions here," Gibson said. "On balance, I like to save snow days for more extreme conditions than we had this morning, knowing we live in Wisconsin and Wisconsin winters can have more extreme conditions."

Other school districts saw the forecast differently and were more concerned about the possibility of icy roads, especially at the end of the school day.

...Gibson said Elmbrook's policy is to announce any closures by 5:30 a.m. to give parents as much notification as possible. He decided the forecast and local road conditions did not necessitate closure but continued to talk to other districts from 5:30 to 6 a.m.

That's when he saw most districts starting to cancel. Milwaukee Public Schools announced at 6 a.m. it was closing, about an hour later than usual.

...Traffic was slow-moving on slippery roads, with some vehicles sliding into ditches, but no major accidents were reported in the Elmbrook area. By school closing time, winter storm warnings had expired and skies were clear.

But some parents blasted Elmbrook's decision, saying it put students and teachers in a dangerous situation.

Parent Lori Davis said the roads were treacherous as she drove to pick up her children at the end of the day.

"I should not have been out driving today," she said. At least one K-8 parochial school in Brookfield also stayed open Tuesday because it uses Elmbrook's buses and follows whatever Elmbrook decides, said one parent who would not disclose the school's identity.

"They should not have stayed open," parent Amy Roberts said. "What happens when the first child dies or the first teacher gets seriously injured in a bad accident?"

But others said Elmbrook made the right call.

As it turns out, Elmbrook did make the right call.

Ice wasn't an issue. The snow stopped and roads weren't treacherous by mid-afternoon.

Based on news reports, parents took their kids sledding. They used the day to go shopping. They went to malls. Some went to the Country Springs Water Park in Waukesha.

News crews were out documenting all the fun that people were having.

Things were a bit dicey early in the day, but that didn't keep kids and parents confined to their homes.

Isn't that what school closures are about? The purpose: Stay off the roads.

School should be cancelled when travel is extremely dangerous or conditions are so poor that it's impossible to get out of the driveway.

Obviously, plenty of people got out of their driveways.

"What happens when the first child dies?"

Come on.