The Wake County school system is standing behind the decision to delay the start of school by three hours this morning.
Wake, lost most area school districts, has found itself facing some second-guessing because the roads were free of ice this morning. Despite the National Weather Service issuing a freezing-rain advisory, temperatures stayed at or above freezing during the night and rose with the sun.
“The bottom line is that safety is our top issue,” said Mike Charbonneau, a Wake County schools’ spokesman. “Every time we have a weather situation, we’re closely monitoring it.”
Charbonneau said the predictions for freezing rain falling between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., when most of the buses are on the road, was a major concern.
Also like most districts, Wake made the call Sunday night instead of waiting until this morning so that families could begin making arrangements for the delay. Wake sent out the news around 9:15 p.m.
"We certainly don't want to make a decision hastily," Charbonneau said. "But we did want to make that call early enough for our families to make plans."
The three-hour delay meant most high schools and middle schools started around 10:30 a.m. and most elementary school started at 12:15 p.m.
Comments
Never happy
Mon, 01/28/2013 - 21:59 — mommy59My son just finished high school 2 weeks ago.So I got a phone call telling us about the 3 hour delay.Funny thing even called his father's number in another state.It may have been an over kill but we all know if they didn't call it last night and waited then everyone would still complain.
Wake county is very big.I have found it upsetting during rain storm season and Franklin county will have a delay and we don't.The weather wasn't that much changed 4 miles down the road .Somebody in Cary would be made because of the delay.
It's always good to stand up for what you believe
Mon, 01/28/2013 - 20:37 — FSandYOUNo problem there. But,
#1: Who are they defending their decision/actions to?
and
#2: If they and/or Mr. Charbonneau would learn just a little bit about weather, maybe a class at one of the great magnet schools, they would get the breakdown as to why water doesn't freeze on ground that is not frozen when temps are not below freezing.
Just because you have one weather event doesn't mean the very next time something flickers in the skies you're destined for a repeat.
Nonetheless, we love getting to sleep late when ever we can. For any reason!
Give them a break.......
Mon, 01/28/2013 - 18:13 — mariareiertheir main concern and responsibility is to ensure safety of the children and staff - not convenience of parents. They made the best decision based on the weather information they had. And in this case the forecast was not correct - which is out of their control. And as WakeCtyMom said - there was a school bus accident on Friday w/a couple children taken to the hospital. I'm sure their goal was to reduce the possibility of that - or worse - happening again.
To ensure you are getting WCPSS phone tree messages make sure the data manager at your child's school has the correct phone number in their database. Ask to have it updated and it will take effect in 24 hours. I just had mine updated.
maybe they can go through
Mon, 01/28/2013 - 17:37 — mnordbergmaybe they can go through their calling tree again to remind us why they did it. Early release moved from 3 to 4 hours, no calls until after kids get home that it changed. Delayed opening with a call to every phone number they have in every database for the past 10+ years at past 9pm and many complaints from people with phone numbers wake county had 10+ years old that got called. Did they call every phone number to announce the 3 hour delay in wake county.
I want to know how much money they are spending on calling so many people and the ever increasing advertising they are doing marketing from the same phone numbers.
I think they made the right call..
Mon, 01/28/2013 - 16:50 — WakeCtyMomThey were forecasting ice last night, and on Friday there was a bus accident with elementary students onboard because school really didn't get out early enough. They had to play it safe.
agree - they made the right call
Tue, 01/29/2013 - 13:25 — sam123456i agree that they made the right call as the weather service was forecasting ice in the morning
me too
Tue, 01/29/2013 - 15:48 — louiselee44Diito