Knoxify

9 Responses to “Were Schools Closed Prematurely?”

1. Knox Animal 
   January 29th, 2010 at 8:33 am

   

   It’s really a lose-lose sit­u­a­tion here. No mat­ter what hap­pened, peo­ple would com­plain. Now that schools and some busi­nesses closed — peo­ple are com­plain­ing that it was done too soon. If they had not closed and a “win­ter storm” came early — peo­ple would be freak­ing out and won­der­ing why they didn’t close schools. So the les­son is to just go with the flow and respect the deci­sion that has been made.

2. Gexx 
   January 29th, 2010 at 9:11 am

   

   I hail from the great, white New Eng­land. I remem­ber mov­ing out of my dorms in May with 2 inches of freshly fallen snow and more falling.

   I do under­stand how­ever, that many rural coun­ties are wor­ried about ice. Snow isn’t scary, it’s the ice that is dangerous.

   I’m still rather sur­prised how quick schools can­cel out­right, rather than pre­dict­ing a 2 hour delay and then using that as buffer time to can­cel. Do they have snow-days built into their calender?

3. chrisadkins 
   January 29th, 2010 at 9:11 am

   

   Yes, def­i­nitely yes. Last year we had a snow that was called really late and one that never got called. New Knox County super­in­ten­dent is from Boston. He has a lot to learn about the Ten­nessee weather sys­tem. Model near Stephanie Thomp­son and the Maryville school system.

4. Tim F. 
   January 29th, 2010 at 9:41 am

   

   I really don’t think school was called off too early at all.

   Bet­ter to ditch the entire day than leave par­ents in a lurch if and when school is closed halfway through the day.

   There will be win­ter weather today, and it will come before school would have ended.

   It was the bet­ter call to can­cel com­pletely, and very smart to let every­one know the night before, so that all arrange­ments can be made.

5. CHuskey 
   January 29th, 2010 at 10:10 am

   

   Gotta agree with Tim F. I got two youn­gins in Knox County Schools, it’s much eas­ier to deal with things the night before, than it is to have to change plans in the mid­dle of the day. It always dri­ves me crazy when every other county is called off, and the Knox kids are left hangin.

6. CaseyK 
   January 29th, 2010 at 11:19 am

   

   I think it’s get­ting a lit­tle ridicu­lous. Snow isn’t expected until the afternoon/evening hours any­way. Why con­tinue to put the fear in peo­ple and now teach the kids to be afraid? I under­stand every­one wants to get home safe but take it slow and use com­mon sense and every­body will be OK.

7. The Modern Gal 
   January 29th, 2010 at 6:16 pm

   

   Yes, I think it was. The fore­cast never said things were going to be messy before late tonight. Snow does not auto­mat­i­cally mean prob­lems on the road. Even though win­ter weather is not the most pre­dictable thing in the South, a lit­tle com­mon sense can still go a long way. Now if tomor­row was a school day, then yes, go ahead and call it.

8. Patrick Beeson 
   February 1st, 2010 at 9:34 am

   

   I think a half-day would have been appro­pri­ate. But given the ter­ri­ble accu­racy of our fore­cast­ers, I don’t blame the schools for erring on the side of caution.

9. Tim Petree 
   February 5th, 2010 at 2:00 pm

   

   I bumped into Supt McIn­tyre on Mon­day and asked him about this @ Lenny’s on Gay St. His rea­sons: they knew snow was com­ing, and they thought it would be around dis­missal time. He wanted to be sure there was some­one to receive each kid who got off the bus. Announc­ing on Thurs­day night gave par­ents more time to make alter­nate plans vs. announc­ing at noon on Fri­day and mak­ing the after­noon chaotic.

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