By an anonymous local school bus operator
The 2 words that everyone hates during the winter....SNOW DAY! well almost everyone! Most students like those 2 words and parents hate them.
Yes, I'm a school bus official with one of the local School Bus Companies....I'm writing today and will remain Anonymous because I don't want people attacking myself or my company on Social Media. That never happens you say! Well sorry it does!
Do you know what happens during a potential Snow Day? Do you think that we (Bus Operators) want a Snow Day? Why do people get upset at us for Snow Days?
I will elaborate on these questions and then some.
The day before a potential Snow Day, School Bus Operators in the area receive an email advising that we're going to have an Inclement Weather call at 5:30am. What do we do as a Bus Operator then? We're out checking roads starting anywhere from 3-4am (while most are still nice and warm in your bed) to check on road conditions in our areas. We'll also check the forecast to see what can be happening at bus time in the am and pm that day. We then get on our conference call and make a decision. That's basically what happens and how a decision is made! Pretty simple process and easy decision??? Some days it is and other days it isn't.
Social Media seems to attack us on every Snow Day we have. Yes not everybody will be happy. We understand that parents are left scrambling for someone to watch their children on a Snow Day! All the negative people out there who attack us blame us for a Snow Day. They blame us because students don't learn (from what is posted) on a Snow Day. They blame us because we went with a forecast and unfortunately the weather people were wrong.. (OH NO...somebody wasn't perfect...heaven forbid).
When there's a Snow Day schools remain open and you have the choice of taking your child to school or not. DON'T blame us because you kept your child home. What gets me is the phone calls we receive about this issue and I advise parents that schools are still open and you can transport your child to school....oh no...the roads are too bad for me to do that! REALLY...give your head a shake...you don't want to drive your child to school but expect a School Bus to drive them. Does a school bus stop as quick as your vehicle? Are you transporting possibly up to 72 students who could be yelling a screaming while you're trying to concentrate on those poor road conditions just when someone passes you because they don't want to be stuck behind a school bus! Oh wait how about that person who goes through the flashing lights and stop arm of a school bus. (oh that's a totally different subject).
YES SNOW DAYS stink for all involved! If I had a dollar for every time I get complaints about Snow Days I wouldn't be writing this today.
I know it might not be easy for some parents on Snow Days to find someone. What happens if your child wakes up in the middle of the night sick? Do you yell at your child because you have to make other arrangements? Probably not!
School Bus Operators want to make sure that all of our "PRECIOUS CARGO" is safe! All we would need is for that one bus to go off the road and then look out! WE would get attacked for running that day then! WE don't want to be a statistic! Years ago yes buses would have ran however, it's unfortunate that our society is the way it is today with people suing each other over things.
Some days we cancel because of road conditions and roads not being plowed (like today). I understand that all the municipalities use this great guideline (standards) from the MTO in plowing roads now! WHY? When is the last time your heard a plow at 1am? I remember growing up and snow plows going by our house at 1am. I don't hear plows anymore at that time. Heck some mornings when I'm out between 3 and 4am still no plows. WHY? Oh wait let's blame the School Bus operators for cancelling because the roads weren't plowed! To me there was no reason why plows shouldn't have been out earlier (midnight) and then we probably wouldn't have had a snow day today because the roads or most of them would have been cleared! I'm not picking on any municipality here but it just seems to be the standard everywhere!
Some social media comments have been that School Bus Operators don't care about Snow Days because they don't pay their drivers for Snow Days. I can tell you that I do believe that most if not all School Bus Operators pay their drivers 100% on Snow Days.
Yesterday we did have some support on Social Media and I thank those people for the support! For those that like to complain about Snow Days....what would you do if you had to make sure that over 10,000 students were safe?
Summer will be here soon so we won't have to worry about SNOW DAYS!
