Riverside Local Schools canceled classes at the last minute after buses transporting students to school got stuck during their commute.
Some parents weren't happy about the announcement, one of them includes Tammy Jacobs. Jacobs was in front of the school about to drop her daughter off when she got the notice.
"It was horrible because I was like the decision to take her home or take her to work with me, so I took her to work," Jacobs continued, "A lot of people were still pulling into the building, and we were trying to go back out and leave."
On Facebook, other parents shared their frustration about the last-minute decision, but others were happy the district made the call no matter the time for the sake of safety.
Riverside Schools didn't give us an interview but sent News 5 a statement explaining the decision was due to a last-minute temperature drop that led to unpassable roads.
Writing the following:
Given the vast change of road conditions in a short amount of time, combined with many of our buses being unable to complete routes (and having to repeat those same routes two more times because we are a triple-tiered system), we ultimately made the difficult decision to cancel school.
While not far down the street, Painesville school buses were on the road. They, along with Parma city schools and others in our area, decided to stay open.
“The roads were, acceptable. I certainly had some patches where it was slippery and we took it slowly,” said Parma City school Superintendent Charles Smialek.
Smialek says any time inclement weather is a factor, conversations start the night before, and the district aims to send a notice by 6 a.m.
“You owe it to your families to make a decision as quickly as possible, because if they're going to have to find childcare, you certainly want to notify them of that,” said Smialek.
Adding that they never want to close school, but some weather conditions leave them no choice.
“We need our students to be in school to make sure that we are able to get instruction accomplished and make sure that we continue to improve student achievement,” Smialek said.
Meanwhile, for Jacobs, next time, she hopes the update comes a little sooner.
“At best, about 40 minutes, not 5 minutes,” said Jacobs.
The district sent out the following email to families after the cancellation:
Dear Riverside Families, we want to apologize for the late decision to close schools today. We realize this may have caused an inconvenience for some families. Please know that the safety and well-being of our staff and students is our number one priority, ultimately leading to our decision to close schools around 6:30 a.m.
We would like to walk you through the timeline of this morning’s events to help everyone understand why the decision was made. During the Winter months, we have several district personnel driving roads as early as 4:30 a.m. throughout the 65 square miles of our District (which covers Concord Township, Leroy Township, Painesville Township, Grand River and small portions of Painesville City, and Chardon).
Per our protocols, typically, all attempts to close school are made by 5:30 a.m. At this time, the roads were deemed safe and drivable, school building parking lots and walkways were plowed and treated with salt and we were planning on a regular school day. Unfortunately, temperatures began to drop below freezing right around the time our buses began their routes for Riverside Campus pick-up. This vastly changed the conditions of many of the roads in our District. Five of our buses encountered unpassable road conditions within the first 5 to 10 minutes of their route, including one bus in Grand River, two in Leroy Township and two in Concord Township.
Given the vast change of road conditions in a short amount of time, combined with many of our buses being unable to complete routes (and having to repeat those same routes two more times because we are a triple-tiered system), we ultimately made the difficult decision to cancel school. Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused. Thank you for your understanding.
Riverside is among the hundreds of schools closed Tuesday due to icy road conditions.
To see if your school is closed, click here.
News 5's Mike Holden tracked icy conditions today on Good Morning Cleveland.
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