Page 4B-KINGS MOUNTAIN HERALD-Wednesday, February 4, 1987 = Superintendent Viewpoint By Bob McRae Snow, Ice Play Havoe I consider snow and ice to be in the same category where Ebenezer Scrooge placed Christmas. It certainly causes great havoc with plans for school. In today’s column I would like to inform you of what is involved in our decision making process on inclement weather days. The final choice is never easy nor one that totally pleases all concerned. When the forecast calls for weather which could create hazardous driving conditions Dr. Larry Allen, Associate Superintendent, and I are on the road by 5:00 a.m. to check driving conditions. We are in radio contact with each other and with representatives of the Cleveland County and Shelby City Schools trying to determine what kind of schedule will best work on that particular day. : On some days all three systems will do the same thing. On other days schedules will differ due to differing conditions in various parts of the county. Our options fall into three categories. One is to have school on our normal schedule. Another is to cancel school entirely. A third is to operate on a delayed schedule. In such cases we feel that the added time gained by the delay will not only improve rogd conditions but also give our bus drivers additional daylight time for driving their routes. If a decision is made to cancel school or delay the day’s schedule, we immediately begin to notify nearby radio and television stations of the announcement. We have the an- nouncement to those stations prior to 6:00 a.m. Unfortunate- ly, the announcements are not always made correctly. This causes significant problems for us and for our patrons. I would suggest two things. Listen to more than one source to see if announcements are the same. Also, I am finding that our Cleveland County radio stations are usually the most con- sistently accurate with our weather information. I would recommend that one of your listening checks be with WKMT or another station in this county. Remember to listen for the announcement which deals specifically with the Kings Moun- tain District Schools. Do not confuse our announcement with those made for the Shelby and the Cleveland County school systems. We try to make our decisions with the safety of our students foremost in our thoughts. There may be occasions where we cancel school based on the weather situation at 6:00 a.m., but it later becomes apparent that we could have had classes that day. Such a situation is unfortunate, but I think you would prefer that we make our decisions for children on the conser- vative side of the issue. Occasionally, as happened with this last snow, we may operate on what I call snow routes. If there is a day when buses can generally operate safely but some dirt roads are still in poor shape, we may choose to avoid the dirt roads which are in the worst condition. I realize that this causes a change in routine and some inconvenience with the safe operation of our buses. We will try not to implement snow route plans unless absolutely necessary. I hope you can assist us on these few occasions by getting your children to thé nearest hard-surfaced road to meet the bus if you are af- fected. I do not feel that we should cancel school when most of our roads are usable. Again, we will try to do this only when absolutely necessary. : Changing a school system’s schedules does not result in alterations to the previously announced calendar. Days miss- ed by students must be made up. For instance, the student day we missed on Monday will be made up on June 9 thus ex- tending the school year for students by one day. We are per- mitted by the state to excuse up to two days of student absence without making them up. However, we normally do that only after using all the available make-up days in the original calendar. Usually this means that we will make up three or four student days missed due to bad weather before excusing the two permitted by the state. I hope this gives you some helpful information regarding our decision making process on days when we have ice and snow. I know that with the different circumstances which af- fect our patrons, it is difficult to make a decision that totally pleases everyone, especially on days after many of our roads have begun to clear substantially. We will continue to try to make our decisions with the safety of our students in mind and request your patience and cooperation in such occur- rences. Also, let me take this opportunity to congratulate our bus drivers on a job well done under difficult circumstances during our recent times of poor road conditions. ‘SAVINGS B Begs eg mnt = $279.00 MTS STEREO OT Ty CeO 0B000 RR As EE , ey STANDARD VHS $ 1,049.00 a, EET SE) 3 A —t > by 0 o o Br WN $749.00 CI 1 @) Pre VHS-C : = $1,379.00 = O00 NEW ® ye Zhe = Ae EER Rp WHILE THEY LAST QUANTITIES ARE LIMITED / *NO MONEY DOWN - NO PAYMENTS UNTIL MARCH 1) <: ) SE STORE HOURS TUES. - FRI. 11:00 AM UNTIL 8:00 PM SATURDAY 10:00 AM UNTIL 8:00 PM ps 867-2658