As any of you that live in Oregon, Washington, or the Northwest in general well know, the snow is falling and has been for a few hours. In Beaverton, near the 185th and Highway 26 overpass, we’ve got over an inch and I would not be surprised if we hit two real soon.
Just about every school district in the greater Portland Metro Area has closed or is on a 2 hour delay, even as I sit in school and type this, Beaverton remains open, with people still arriving more than 45 minutes late. Buses are stuck on various roads, some roads are turning into ice rinks, and accidents seem to abound.
I have heard of students who got into fender benders out there, and rumor has it that one teacher slipped on the ice and may have broken a rib. All I have to say is ‘Thank You,’ Beaverton School District, for calling yet another weather-day wrong. Not!
Breaking News at 8:35 AM: They are sending us home! But I’m not looking forward to the trip home. We’ve got 300 to 400 students at a school of 2600, more than 45 minutes into the day. Many staff are gone as well. This should be interesting.
Update: As it turned out, the 8:30 decision (it took a few minutes before they told us) was only the beginning. Even though all the buses that would end up being there were at the school by 9:00AM (presumedly they were late dropping off kids and simply decided to stay), none of the buses actually left until about 11:30AM, at which point we made it home almost as quickly as on a normal school day. I am under the impression that the district policy is not to release until enough buses are at the schools to release them all at once. Although the policy makes sense, Westview (and I was under the impression that Sunset as well) had buses chained and ready to go, sitting for almost three hours while who knows what was going on with the central office.
They were nice enough to order pizza for students waiting for the buses, which I thought was a kind gesture, but I wish they could have simply sent us out more quickly. I guess it doesn’t really matter, though, as everything worked out in the end.
I’m not sure why the administrators didn’t make the call earlier, but I heard something on the news about it being too hard to stop the process of starting a school day (and sending out buses) once it had begun. Great, but as one teacher put it, “They’re oh-for-three this year” (meaning not closing one day that most other districts did when there was some ice and at least one student getting into an accident as a result, closing for the day after the windstorm (December 15th) when most of the district had no real problems, and now today for putting thousands of staff and students in danger by not closing until 8:35AM.
Breaking News at 5:45PM: It looks like they’re getting more on top of it. Beaverton has just announced (at 5:35PM) that they will be closed tomorrow (January 17) as well.
- All schools and District facilities will be closed on Wednesday, January 17, 2007.
- All after school and evening activities have been cancelled for Wednesday, January 17, 2007.