The team considered the options before deciding “closure was the best thing,” Crockett said. “They were decidedly getting worse,” Crockett said. Perry and her transportation team gathered again at 6:15 a.m. “We were just getting snow everywhere,” Crockett said.Įven pushing school start times forward two hours didn’t assure that conditions would improve in time to get students safely to school. Areas that had been dry were now seeing snowfall. With school on pause, more school officials moved out for on-the-road scouting. and high school students via StudentSquare at 6 a.m. The school district’s automated system was put into play to report the delay, notifying school district employees at 5:30 a.m., parents at 5:45 a.m.
Normally, buses would begin dropping students off at elementary schools by 7:30 a.m.
#Slae mweather drivers
She had an inch of snow already at her home.įive school bus drivers had already arrived for duty before the two-hour delay notice went out to all drivers who staff the district’s 242 routes. “I was looking at the National Weather Service and hearing what people were saying about what they were seeing,” said Perry. When weather conditions are unsettled and the call on the school day is going to be tough, “for me, personally, I’ve got to hear from everyone,” Perry said.Īt 5:15 a.m., Perry endorsed the recommendation to delay school by two hours. In a virtual meeting 30 minutes later, Perry and Silva joined in.
On cue, conditions worsened and snow started falling around Salem. “In the middle of making the recommendation, the National Weather Service changed its outlook to a winter storm warning,” Crockett said. The team reported in to consider the options. session Tuesday while parked at Crossler Middle School. But virtual meetings are the norm now, with Crockett convening a 4:15 a.m. “We’re looking for snow, tracking the weather,” said Crockett, the district’s director of transportation services.īefore the pandemic, the route-checkers would head to the office to compare notes. With that forecast in mind, Crockett and his team set out early – two to the hills of west Salem, two to south Salem. Overnight the National Weather Service had issued a winter storm watch for Salem, indicating there could be snow above 500 feet. “If people had a chance to ride along with us, they would understand,” Perry said. Later in the day, Perry, Crockett and Bob Silva, the district’s chief operating officer, described the morning’s events in an interview with Salem Reporter. In the next three hours, conditions in Salem deteriorated quickly and top officials made the final call: Close the schools.Īs the threat passed through the morning, the temperature climbed well above freezing and Salem’s streets were bare.įor Superintendent Christy Perry, that call to close is the “trickiest of decisions” and she stayed personally involved through the morning.
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