‘Tis the season–for inclement weather days resulting in school cancellations, delayed starts and early dismissals. On the one hand, parents need to deal with alternate child-care plans, often restless children and the accompanying snow removal issues.
On the other side of the equation is the man who has to make the decision about whether or not the school district will change course from “school’s in session.” That’s Dr. Gary Richards, the man on the other end of the phone call alerting parents to the schedule disruption. “Hello, this is Gary Richards…” seems to be a more frequent occurence in Wilton homes.
To start with, Richards acknowledged the difficulty the district has experienced with Power Announcement, the new phone system adopted at the start of the school year by the schools to notify parents about snow days.
“I’m not happy, and we’re not at all happy with the service that we’ve gotten. We’re looking at another system. The system we had before this, the Alert Now, was pretty much instantaneous. I made the school closure call [last Thursday] night, at 9:30 p.m. and even I didn’t get my call [from the system] until after 11 p.m.! I’m mortified to think that, the assumption is that you make these calls and it’s instantaneous. We’ve got to rely on having a system. We were excited that we went to it, and people could customize it to get their information in a variety of different formats, and we’ve had some misfires on it. We’re not at all happy, and it’s a high priority to get this [improved], as we arguable have several more months of weather issues to deal with. We can’t afford to have a system that isn’t immediate and highly reliable.”
As a result, Richards said it’s always wise for parents to have backup information sources: following the Wilton School district on Facebook, where the announcements are posted is one option; email alerts from CTweather.com; and he also said local TV and radio stations should list closings or delays.
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The recent snowstorm and inclement weather events have underscored how difficult it is sometimes to predict what the weather will be like, and how tough a call it is for Richards to make. The school cancellations or early dismissals have been the chatter amongst parents, on Facebook and in person; anecdotally, there have been parents trying to give the superintendent some slack and acknowledging how difficult a responsibility it is. Many have expressed their gratitude at his decision placing safety first, referencing a storm in 2008 where children were caught on buses, some until very late in the evening, during a winter snow storm.
“That was March 8,” Richards recalled, quickly, as if the date still haunts him. “That was something that, every time you make these decision, they’re ones we take very seriously. We agonize over them.”
It’s an agony that comes with the New England territory. “One of the things I take some measure of comfort–I’m never comfortable if it’s a decision that turns out to not be the best decision–is that the people who do the weather get these wrong on a frequent basis. I have no formal training in meteorology. I’ve learned a certain amount over the years, but it is a very difficult decision.”
Amongst many things, Richards said he has to weigh the timing of his decision, as well as the logisitics of letting the buses go versus sending them home early. He tries to get as much information as he can and then make the best possible decision. He looks at a number of sources for that information.
“One of the things that has been pretty helpful and pretty accurate has been News 12. There’s Channel 61–it’s all weather and traffic. We subscribe to the CTweather.com service. We look at NOAA and get information from them. Deputy fire chief Mark Amatrudo has been very helpful with forecast information he gets. And other school superintendents have different services. Sometimes I’ve gone out and driven around at night to see whether they’re passable or if you can get traction on the roads. I also talk to the Wilton Police Department, they’ll tell me what the men and women in the squad cars are saying.”
Of course Richards has to take into account the fact that the town of Wilton covers a wide geographic area, and often has different weather from one part to another.
“We have microclimates. I live in North Wilton, and as I drive down to the high school, there can be several degrees difference in temperature, just from the elevation change. It’s snowing up here and it’s raining down there. And the parts of Wilton closer to the water have a different variable they deal with,” Richards said
He said he does the best he can with as much information as he can, and hopes for the best. He cites last week’s early dismissal call on Thursday, Jan. 2 as an instance where he made a decision based on information that was available at the time, but the weather shifted. “As it turned out we could have gotten the day in, but the information when I had to make that decision was saying the snow would kick in heavier between 1 and 3 p.m.. Well, it didn’t. I left the office at 5:30 p.m. and it still hadn’t kicked in.”
Thankfully, many residents seemed to give Richards a break that day, understanding that the many predictions for severe weather early in the day–including even on GMW.com—could have come true. Many people expressed a “better safe than sorry” take on the call.
“Keep in mind I have to make these decisions between 5 and 5:30 a.m.. I called a cancellation where not a flake had fallen, but they were saying it would kick in and snow all day. You get people critizing, ‘What’s he thinking about! It isn’t even snowing!’ Turned out we got snow all day. But that’s what happens.”
I guess you win some and you lose some, right Dr. Richards?
“As do the forecasters,” he said knowingly.