Communication vital for schools during snow

Effective communication proved to be the key link for schools on Monday, when unexpected snowfall caused road closures and hazardous driving conditions in areas surrounding the Barstow and Silver Valley school districts.

Parents with students in the Barstow Unified School District were informed of the early release in a few different ways.  Some schools, including Barstow High School, Barstow Junior High School, Barstow Intermediate School, and one of the elementary schools, sent parents automated phone messages.  District administrators said they also made announcements on two local radio stations and posted a notice on the district’s website. The Desert Dispatch also informed residents of the early release on our Web site.

However at schools without phone messaging systems, office staff were left to try to contact the students’ parents.  At some schools, students called their parents directly on their own cell phones.

According to Teresa Healy, assistant superintendent of educational service for the Barstow school district, which includes about 6,700 students, the notifications were sent out a few hours before the early release, and no students were left stranded.

Barstow district administrators made the decision to end the school day early between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m., according to Healy.

She said the district's main concerns were driving and road conditions. "We were afraid the roads would ice over," said Healy. The district’s main focus was the safety of the students, she said.

In the Silver Valley school district, schools remained open but after-school activities were cancelled due to worsening road conditions, especially along Fort Irwin Road.

Silver Valley employs a district-wide automated phone messaging system that notified parents of any changes to the school day, and on Monday parents of Silver Valley High School students received calls notifying them that students living at Fort Irwin would be held at the high school gymnasium until Fort Irwin Road reopened, which was around 4 p.m., according to Aaron Haughton, assistant superintendent of administrative services at Silver Valley. When students loaded the buses heading to the fort, parents were again notified via phone message.

The communication wasn’t just one way — Silver Valley High School teachers and staff also waited at the school until they heard back that the buses had crossed the gate into Fort Irwin.

Because of the early closing, Healy also noted that students at Barstow High School will have to add on some additional time to future school days to make up for the early day.

Healy said that in the future, the district will need to work with food services personnel to plan for unexpected schedule changes due to bad weather. The cafeteria staff had to scramble to feed the students on the changed schedule, she said.

“We have to take it incident by incident,” said Healy. "We haven't closed school in 15 years because of weather," she added.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4122 or elee@desertdispatch.com