Not a Good Call

My grandfather was a Yorkshireman, and like many enjoyed a good cricket match. He told the story of a day watching Yorkshire struggle while bowling against another county team. Every time a batter hit the ball into the open outfield, one of the spectators called out, “Put a man there!”. This went on and on, as no matter how the captain adjusted the fielders, the opposing batters kept finding holes, and the observer kept yelling, “Put a man there!”. Finally, the captain turned to the heckler and asked in exasperation, “How many men does tha think I have?” Slight pause. “Not bloody sufficient”, came the answer.

The Portland Public School web site’s page on how they make the call on snow days/late openings says, “District staff members collect weather-related data from a range of reliable sources by 5 a.m. A network of administrators then decides whether any school closures or schedule changes will occur”. My reaction is that however many “reliable sources” they have, it’s not sufficient. There has to be a better way, in this day and age of instant communication by so many modes, to make calls on snow days.

We live at 650 feet on the slopes of Mt. Sylvania, one of the highest points in the Wilson High School catchment area. This morning, Steve drove his zebra car (rear wheel drive, no traction assistance) up the hill at 7 a.m., and I had no difficulty getting my Intrepid over the same route at 7:30. There was a thin layer of snow with the temperature at 31.7F, but the tires made tracks to bare pavement. With the School District’s call posted as 2 hour late opening, I left my daughter to enjoy her unexpected time at home, and drove to a long-scheduled event at NE 76th/Glisan. Unless it was worse near the Columbia, the folks on the eastside must have been wondering why a district-wide late opening was called for drizzle at 37 degrees.

By the time I returned at 9:30, the district had closed the schools in the upper elevations of the West Hills – Forest Heights, Ainsworth, etc. That’s what they should have done in the first place, and left the rest of the district on a normal schedule.

I think they need to expand their “range of reliable sources” to include community participants all over the district. At the beginning of the school year, ask for volunteers to register on a secure site, to allow information to be pinpointed to the address of the informant, and to avoid students wanting a day off flooding the system. Then whenever there is a question about whether schools should close or be delayed, map where the Close, Delay, and Open on Time votes come from, to assist administrators in making a more fine-tuned decision. Make the call per high school district, not citywide. And give us credit for a little pioneer spirit and capability. Even in this day and age of coddling, in a city with drivers who freak out when they see a flake.