message from Dr. Michael Morris, Superintendent of Schools
Amherst, Pelham, and the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Districts
Dear ARPS Community:
Given the high level of interest in how weather-related
delay and cancellation decisions are made, I thought it would be helpful
to share the process that we use.
First, I would like to acknowledge the large impact that a
change in schedule imposes on families. I fully understand how a snow day,
delay, or early release schedule has many unintended consequences
on family and working life for those in the ARPS community. Our transportation system involves a network of four
separate bus companies who transport students aged 3-21 in three counties,
eight separate school districts, in a wide range of towns where the weather and
road conditions are very different.
Transportation Organization
We have a complex system of drivers/bus companies that,
surprisingly, optimizes our finances and operations. Some of our buses
and vans are owned by the district and are driven by ARPS employees. We
also utilize the Five-Star Bus Company for routes in Amherst and Pelham. Our Regional routes in Shutesbury and Leverett are covered by the
Kuzmeskus Bus Company; they also manage the routes for the Shutesbury and
Leverett Elementary Schools, which are autonomous districts with their own
separate School Committees and a shared Superintendent, Jennifer Haggerty (who
also manages the elementary schools for the towns of New Salem, Wendell, and
Erving). Finally, we utilize the Vanpool company to transport students
with specialized transportation needs and we also provide transportation
support for students attending multiple vocational schools across three
counties in the area, which each have their own Board of Trustees and
Superintendents.
Our Towns
A frequent response on either a day when a weather related
delay/cancellation has occurred (or has not occurred) is that a different call
should have been made based on the weather in a specific location. I want
to acknowledge these responses as fully appropriate and reasonable.
For instance, on the snow day on March 8, all locations and
roads in the Town of Amherst were cleared in time for a two-hour delay to be
appropriate. However, the road conditions in several other towns were not safe
for travel as per their Highway Departments. Likewise, community members
from towns with higher elevations and more dirt roads have expressed concerns
about the road conditions near them on days when we have not canceled or
delayed the opening of school.
The reality is that on any given day, winter weather varies
widely between the four towns of the Region. The range in snowfall
amounts from the highest elevations in Pelham, Leverett and Shutesbury are
often quite different from those in lower elevations in Amherst. We try
to do our best to balance the different weather and road conditions across the
four towns of the Region when making these decisions. We do our best to
make the best decision for all of our students with the information we have at
about 5:00 AM, which usually (but not always) predicts what the
conditions will be several hours later.
The Process
Our Transportation Coordinator, local DPW/Highway
Departments, Shutesbury/Leverett Superintendent Haggerty, and myself are in
contact about weather forecasts the day before any winter weather event. If there is high certainty on the forecast, we have attempted to inform
the community of delays/cancellations the night prior if at all possible. When
it is not possible, this same group begins communicating at 4:45 in the morning
about current conditions. If we cannot receive assurances about the
safety of bus travel to all four towns in our Region by the time buses are
scheduled to depart to pick up our secondary school students, we assess whether
a delay or cancellation is warranted. If the reports we receive indicate
that the roads will not support safe transportation by 8:30 AM (when our
Regional buses depart on days when we have two-hour delays), we cancel school. Student and bus safety is the primary factor in the decision-making
process.
All decisions are made by 5:30 AM, because we know such
decisions impact families in significant ways and some of our employees need to
leave at that time to get to work. We update our automated phone line
with delay/cancellation information (362-1898), contact local media outlets
(22News and Western Mass News), and update the ARPS website (www.arps.org)
with this information.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions
about weather-related transportation concerns. We appreciate your
patience and understanding of the process that is required when making
weather-related decisions in a geographically diverse and expansive region and
with a complex network of transportation providers.
