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Park City School Closures
We’ve received a few emails and comments on the school district closing school today. As is typical, we don’t really get the comments praising the school district for bowing to the snow gods (we’re sure many parents are happy to go skiing with their kids). However, we did get a few emails from parents who were upset with the decision. One parent emailed at about 6:45AM and said the road outside her house was completely plowed and couldn’t understand how schools were closed.
Another email commented, “Do you know how much not being able to work is costing me? While I’m all for safety, this seems ridiculous.”
We reached out to the school district for comment. Molly Miller with the Park City School District replied:
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“The decision was made this morning because there was about a foot of snow on the side roads and buses were unable to make it through. Here’s a look at the policy:
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We view the decision to close school as a damned if you do and damned if you don’t decision. If something were to happen to a bus, there would be an uproar, and potentially kids hurt. However, there probably are some kids who are hungry today because they didn’t get school lunches.
But heck, it’s a good day for Vail as kids flock to the resorts.
However, the best quote just came in from a reader. She says, “I was just at the doctor in Salt Lake and they asked what I was going to do with the rest of my day. I told them Park City schools were closed, so I am taking care of my children. The doctor said, ‘Park City closed for snow?’ and couldn’t stop laughing.”
Maybe that doctor has a point. Park City is the only school in the state to close because of this storm.
That said, it’s supposed to snow from 6PM tonight for the next day or two. They are predicting up to 30 more inches of snow by Thursday. So, it looks like Park City kids may get another couple of ski snow days.
Parkrag
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Comments
6 Comments
People look at their street and make a judgement about whether the school should be open or not. Try looking everywhere else. Did they get the parking lots cleared? Can the teachers get to school? Are the back roads at higher elevations clear? Having 224 and 248 clear is not enough to open for school. This is only the second day in my 12 Park City years that they have closed for school. I wonder how many of the people complaining drive their kids to school in a nice 4 wheel drive SUV instead of putting them on a bus.
As for the other systems not closing, the front sat on top of our area and dumped. The resorts south of here got nothing. Up north, Snowbasin got 2″. We were in a small pocket of heavy snow.
Steve-
I generally agree with you. There are many factors that go into a decision like this. I’m sure Todd Hauber made the best decision he could at the time. However, I do have to say that Alta, Snowbird, and Brighton all got over 25 inches of snow, while Park City got 17.
It’s hard to get information on snowfall in cities, so I don’t know how somewhere like the Provo City School District, who delayed school 2 hours, compares to Park City (the city and not the resort).
Catch 22: Put the kids on the bus to die in an accident, or close the school and they’ll starve to death at home.
Children go hungry if they don’t go to school? Where is Peace House? Where is Child Protection Services? How are these abused children slipping through the cracks?
Many families depend on school breakfast/lunches to provide food for their children, even though we wish it wasn’t that way.
I heard 5 years ago that 33% of kids in the Park City School system are on some kind of assisted lunch program….Surely that number has risen since then. Anonymous asked where is help coming from?…I am not sure about those places for assistance but, I do know that the Christian Center of Park City has a program called ” Snacks for Backpacks”. Each Thursday morning a Christian Center truck loaded with bags of nonperishable food are delivered to most PC schools. These bags are put into kids backpacks that are ID’ed by concerned teachers each Friday morning. Unfortunately since most of these kids only get a hot meal, healthy meal during the school week…These bags of food are often all they have to eat over the weekend and until they return to school Monday morning……Yes, this happens in PARK CITY.
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