BANGOR, Maine — The first widespread snowfall of this winter caused a lot of school districts to cancel classes earlier this week.
With more cold weather on the way, it's likely that students will have some more snow days in the near future.
School superintendents said they start communicating with bus companies and public safety officials to decide whether school should be in session as early as 3:30 a.m.
Bus drivers run test routes and report back to superintendents, sharing real-time road conditions several hours before their bus pick-up routes begin.
"We’re texting, we’re making phone calls, we’re looking at weather all morning long," Superintendent of Bangor School District James Tager said. "It’s a lot of pressure to pick a snow day. I walk around the community, people say, 'Are you the one who calls the snow day?', and they’re either happy or unhappy. But I think that the bottom line that I would want our families to know is that safety does come first."
Tager said when roads are icy and precipitation is constant throughout the morning, he and other superintendents are left to decide whether students should attend school.
Superintendent of RSU 34 schools Matthew Cyr said superintendents in various districts even reach out to each other during the decision-making process.
Cyr said 25 percent of students who attend the high school for RSU 34 live in shared districts, and they have to cross cities or towns to attend the high school in his district because there is no high school where they live.
He said if a superintendent from a neighboring school district decides to cancel school for the day for grade or middle school students, high school students who live in that district won't be bussed over to school in the RSU 34 district for the day.
"Here in my district, you know, I have over 300 employees and 1,400 students," Cyr said. "So, probably nearly one thousand students are impacted by a single decision. And it's not as simple as I wake up in the morning and press a button that says school is canceled."
Director of Training and Safety at John T. Cyr and Sons bus company Melanie Vanaken said bus drivers know their routes, and they know when it's safe to drive and when it is not. She said back roads in smaller towns have less traffic, which makes road conditions worse.
"Sometimes we have to take into consideration that not everybody is close to the town and has all those drive pavements," Vanaken said. "Some are on dirt roads which are harder to maintain."
Cyr said the decision to call school off for the day isn't done on the whim, and he, like many other superintendents, prioritizes safety.
"For some of our students, going to school is their safety net," Cyr said. "Students expect to go to a warm school, to be fed, to be cared for, and loved by our staff and see their friends. So, we really do not take school cancellations lightly at all."
Parents agree that they’re all for being safe rather than sorry. Moms like Julie Lesch said she relocated to Maine from California. She said she never experienced school cancellations when she was younger because there was no inclement weather.
Lesch said she can't speak to whether kids have more snow days or days out of school than she did as a child.
She added she does not agree that kids should attend school in unsafe weather conditions regardless of whether Mainers are used to driving in the snow. She explained that it only takes one time to have a freak accident.
Although Lesch said she thinks school cancellations are sometimes needed, she believes that sending out school cancellation alerts at 5:30 a.m. the morning of is way too late.
"That’s like two and a half hours notice to give your work—and no employer appreciates that," Lesch said. "You can’t get last-minute childcare—you can’t find people to keep your kids because everyone has a snow day."
Lesch said last year Superintendent Tager did a great job at sending school cancellation alerts out on the night before. Bangor schools had three snow days last year, which were all called early, but she said it was frustrating when school cancellation alerts were sent out on the morning of earlier this week.
Tager said superintendents work to make the most educated decision with the information they have available at the time.
"We’re going to take care of our students as if they’re our own, and we’ll make the decision as quickly as we can," Tager said. "We would love to make it the night before, but we can’t always do that."
Bus drivers said sometimes it takes longer to work with superintendents to make a final decision because road conditions can look very different in the wee hours of the morning versus when drivers begin running their routes. Vanaken said she hopes the community can trust their expertise.
Cyr said in-person learning and having students in school each school calendar day is important, but so is minimizing the chances of unfortunate events.
"We want our kids to be in school," Cyr said. "We think it's an incredible opportunity—but when it comes to safety there’s very little to debate."