In a few hours Monday, CMS launched a bold new approach to snow closings. Here’s why.
For as long as anyone can remember, snow closings were an all-or-nothing deal for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. If some roads remained unsafe, the whole district canceled classes.
At noon Monday, as officials checked roads and sized up options for Tuesday, the district’s chief communication officer said CMS was weeks away from having a plan to split weather closings into smaller zones.
But at 9:30 p.m. CMS did just that, reversing its earlier announcement that all 175 schools would open on a two-hour delay Tuesday. Instead, 35 schools would remain closed because of icy roads in the northern part of the county.
“It’s something I’ve asked for for years,” said board member Rhonda Cheek, who represents the northern District 1. She said she spent Monday relaying concerns and photos from families who feared that even a delay wouldn’t be enough to make their roads safe for buses.
A statement CMS sent at noon Tuesday said the call was made after district officials realized roads they had hoped could be cleared were likely to get worse overnight, while some schools remained without power. Meanwhile, officials across North Carolina were voicing urgency about getting students back to class in a school year that has seen significant school closings from two hurricanes and an unusually early winter storm.
All students are scheduled to return to a normal schedule Wednesday, with five school days left before winter break.
As of Tuesday, all CMS schools have been closed six days because of bad weather. Thirty-seven — the ones that remained closed Tuesday and two others that were closed earlier because of individual power outages — have lost seven days.
“Last night’s decision does not reflect implementation of an ongoing policy but was an option exercised with safety as a priority and in response to deteriorating conditions, input from families and staff, and guidance from safety experts and law enforcement,” said a CMS statement sent at noon Tuesday.
Chief Communications Officer Tracy Russ said Tuesday that Superintendent Clayton Wilcox still plans to consult with staff and parents, then take some long-term options to the school board at a future meeting.
The schools that were closed Tuesday fell into three categories, CMS said:
▪ Northern neighborhood schools where roads, sidewalks and/or parking lots remained dangerously icy Monday night.
▪ Magnet schools, such as Northwest School of the Arts, Phillip O. Berry Academy of Technology, Piedmont Middle, Trillium Springs Montessori and Waddell Language Academy, that pull significant numbers of students from those areas.
▪ Schools that remained without power, such as Independence High in southeast Charlotte.
Large parts of southern and central Mecklenburg got little snow and ice over the weekend, leading families there to chafe at losing more days of learning.
Wake County Schools, the only North Carolina district larger than CMS, had just posted a lengthy defense of keeping a united front on closings. Like CMS, Wake has faced perennial complaints from parents who say their kids shouldn’t stay home when roads are clear in their part of the county. A Twitter thread posted Sunday noted that many Wake students choose magnet options that aren’t close to home, while teachers may also live in icy areas while working in clear ones.
The same is true in Mecklenburg, where some teachers complained on the CMS Facebook page about having to line up substitutes when CMS decided to close schools their children attended while summoning the parents to work.
“People don’t work where they live and although that’s a personal choice, I shouldn’t have to risk my safety to get to my scholars,” one teacher posted.
The CMS post announcing the closings drew more than 200 comments by noon Tuesday, a mix of criticism and praise.
“Thank you so much for working so hard to accommodate our gigantic county,” one parent wrote. “Those of us here where the roads are dry are very appreciative that our kids don’t have to miss another day, even though we were worried about the roads in the northern part of CMS.”
Lennon, who is also a CMS parent, praised Superintendent Clayton Wilcox and his staff for doing everything possible to get schools ready to open Tuesday but shifting course when some couldn’t get there.
“I slept well last night knowing there were no buses running through here,” she said Tuesday. “It was the right thing to do.”
Russ said he didn’t hear about any major problems with transportation, staffing or attendance Tuesday.
“It gives us a lot to think about as we try to have a discussion about whether this will be a continuing option,” he said.
The district expects to announce a makeup schedule at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
Wilcox has waived makeup time for the first three days lost to tropical storm Florence and has authority to waive one more day. That would still leave two or three days of makeup time, depending on the school.
This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 2:25 PM.
