ESCANABA, Mich. (WZMQ) – With recurring winter storms hitting the Upper Peninsula, some schools are nearing their limit of inclement weather days.
Schools in Gladstone, Bark River, Rapid River, and Escanaba told students to stay home on Wednesday due to icy roads. According to Escanaba Area Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Coby Fletcher, the district is allowed to take six days per year. Wednesday was its fifth.
Considering the district’s large service area, Fletcher says canceling classes is necessary for safety when ice storms occur.
“Escanaba Area Public Schools covers about 180 square miles,” he explained. “We’re not one of the larger districts geographically, but that’s a lot of territory. You can have conditions in different areas in the district that just might be dangerous. If we feel like it reaches a threshold where the risk is just too high, then we’ll call a snow day.”
If school districts need more than six inclement weather days, they can apply to receive up to three more. Districts that exceed their limits are required to make up the lost hours. Fletcher says they can do so by extending school hours, adding days onto the end of the year, or implementing online instruction days.
Although not ideal, Fletcher says those adjustments would be worth it to ensure the safety of staff, students, guardians, and bus drivers.
“It’s not an easy decision because instruction is valuable, and we also realize that it inconveniences a lot of our families who have to plan for childcare and other things like that,” he said. “We do put a lot of thought into whether or not it’s going to be appropriate to call a snow day. It’s not the easy decision that sometimes people think it is, but we do our best to make it in the best interest of our families and our staff.”
Fletcher says the timing of snowy or icy conditions is often an additional challenge for school administrators.
“Sometimes, we know the evening before with some certainty that a storm is going to be bad,” said Fletcher. “That really wasn’t the case with this storm. On days like that, we get up very early—usually around 4:00 or 4:30 in the morning—and we start looking at weather. We have to make the decision around 5:00, because that’s when some of our bus drivers start arriving. We made the call, and freezing rain started about 30 minutes afterwards. We were all glad it was the right call.”
In Fletcher’s time at Escanaba Area Public Schools, the district has only requested additional inclement weather days one time. While extra days are typically granted, he says they are not guaranteed.
