WRDSB

[Spokes]

It's hard to imagine how parents could be upset reading well-reasoned explanations like that. The school board can't predict the future, and can only make an educated guess what to do based on weather forecasts and what roads and temperatures are likely to be.

Outhit doesn't actually identify what the outraged tweets were about. Is it because buses were delayed? Delays can be expected: most things move slower in the cold. Do parents think they should have been cancelled because it was so cold? The outraged parents themselves could have kept their kids home from school- or walked them to school instead of busing- if they didn't want them waiting for the bus. Again, with the expectation that unusual weather could result in bus delays.

My kid doesn't qualify for bussing, he's about 3,170 meters from school (closest route, but not a safe route), which is 30M short of receiving a bus (despite the safe route being closer to 3600 meters).  Anyway, I see this as a health issue; if they're saying it's not safe to be outside for more than 10 minutes, let's say, then perhaps they need to revise their policy.

Problem last week was for high school students, and those that half to walk far. It was exam week and my kid missed his exam, as did many others, as it simply was too cold to walk, and every service out there was running late. The teacher gave him a 'pass' for the credit, but 50% isn't a great mark for a report card, when he was at an 85%.

The board needs to keep in mind that this is Southern Ontario, not the prairies, and therefore record low temperatures should trigger school closures. Now what happens is that if parents the decide to keep (or allow) their children home, only those kids miss the learning, which puts them behind the other students. It's not like the teachers can't compress the information due to missed days, they can. But for kids that are bussed and end up at school an hour late, or parents that keep their children from walking to school due to the cold, they're screwed.

As an aside, if your kid was at an 85% and missed the exam the teacher CANNOT drop the mark to a 50, or really at all.  If you need more info PM me.