Making snow day decisions is not easy
Probably no one in the Highland Falls-Fort Montgomery community dreads winter’s frequent ‘weather events’ more than Superintendent of Schools Dr. Frank Sheboy.
That’s because he, along with Director of Facilities Tom Fargo, has to make frequent decisions about whether or not to open school, to close school early, to delay opening school or to call an early dismissal.
Sheboy spoke about making the decisions at the Feb. 7 Board of Education meeting.
“It’s important for the community to know that our most important consideration is the health, safety and welfare of our faculty, staff and children,” the superintendent said. “If bad weather is taking place, or is expected, we start the process of making the decision at about 4 a.m., with calls and text messages.”
He said to gather the information the HF-FMCSD needs to make an informed decision about what to do, they rely on various weather forecasting sites, other district superintendents, other Buildings & Grounds directors, West Point, and the town and village Highway Departments. They also are dependent on some of the district’s employees who live locally — neither Sheboy or Fargo lives in the community — to find out what is going on here specifically.
“Our crews come in at 4:30 or 5 a.m. and tell us what is going on,” Sheboy said. “And we thank them and the town and village DPW’s for being our eyes and ears when we aren’t in the district.”
“These aren’t easy calls to make,” Sheboy said. “I really like the simple weather calls when they say we’re going to get three feet of snow and then we actually do get three feet of snow … but that doesn’t happen too often.”
He used an example from the last week in January, when the school district was closed on a Tuesday due to snow, and then opened late on Wednesday. Students were barely in school for an hour before a decision was made to send them home early.
“That day started out okay, but then the forecasters all started talking about snow squalls that were to come through in the afternoon.”
“We needed to get everyone home safe,” he said. “It’s always a challenging call, but we have to be unwavering.”
Board of Education members thanked Sheboy and the others involved for making the difficult decisions. Board Member Faith Aprilante said she is very frustrated when she sees comments on social media calling the district’s decisions on school days “stupid”.
“At the end of the day, the safety of our children, faculty and staff is more important than anything,” Board President Anne Lawless said.
And Board Member Aaron Falk said he’d always prefer to see the district err on the side of caution.
Several time this year district officials have made the decision to close schools the night before, earning praise from parents because the additional time allows them to make plans for the snow day ahead.
The HF-FMCSD had five snow days built into the 2018-19 calendar, and, as of Tuesday, had used three of them. There is, however, some additional flexibility in the schedule, if needed, Sheboy said.
