Snow days… Park City Schools are damned if they do and damned if they don’t

Today, Park City Schools were closed due to snow. This decision sits well with some and sits poorly with others. Those advocating the school closing cite safety. The other side cite the real-world impact of managing kids out of school with one hour notice.

Both have merits.

I tend to look at it somewhat differently. We live in the mountains. Last night’s 6 inches of snow is not unusual. This morning’s sixteen-degree temperature is not unusual. Our community has invested in school buses with automatic chains. Our schools have a policy that says that kids who can’t make their way to school safely don’t have to come.

In a school district that prides itself on children learning resiliency, it seems like an unusual lesson. If things are too tough — just cancel it. I understand that some kids don’t ride the bus, and of those, I understand some kids parents’ have a back wheel drive that would make it hard to get to school.

I also get that some teachers have to drive up from Salt Lake.

I drove to the Run-amuck dog park at about 6:30 AM and couldn’t believe schools were closed. The plows had done TOO good of a job to close schools. There was some slush in the lanes of main thoroughfares– at most. Perhaps on some side streets there was more snow if they weren’t plowed.