After an unprecedentedly cold week in Lincoln, Lincoln Public Schools (LPS) Interim Superintendent Dr. John Skretta provided a formal explanation of the factors that influence the district’s decisions to cancel school for students.
“Cold weather closures are never fun decisions to make,” Skretta told media on Friday. LPS students no doubt enjoyed not one, but two days off this week, with Wednesday and Thursday being called off due to extremely cold temperatures.
Chief among school administrators’ concerns is, of course, the health and safety of students. The National Weather Service office in Omaha/Valley, which Skretta said LPS relies on heavily for accurate weather information, declared temperatures to be dangerous several times this week.
“We do not want students to have to be exposed to unsafe wind chill temperatures on what are sometimes long walks to school or waiting at a bus stop for a pickup,” he said.
The weather’s effect on LPS buses is also a factor.
“Those severe temperatures also can increase the likelihood of mechanical breakdowns for buses… We have 125 bus routes daily. Beginning in the fall season, we start applying a blended fuel mix so that it’s not straight diesel and it’s more resistant to gelling up in those lower, colder temperatures. We also take proactive measures to ensure that our buses are ready to run when it’s cold weather, including our mechanical team coming in as early as 3 or 4 a.m. to get those buses started for a route that may start just after 6 a.m.,” said Skretta.
As Nebraska’s second largest school district, LPS oversees 60 different school buildings and over 70 different sites.
“The logistics involved with snow removal, clearing of walks, clearing of pathways, and clearing parking lots so that we have adequate parking for staff and students at that number of sites is really a pretty herculean undertaking,” said Skretta.
The interim leader said LPS and the City of Lincoln have “a pretty great partnership” and the district receives “routine updates in a very timely basis whenever there’s a significant weather event.”
Lastly, Skretta emphasized that he — as a school district superintendent — does not make the decision to cancel classes unilaterally.
“Despite the fact that both praise and blame are heaped upon me when making these decisions,” he quipped. “We make snow day decisions internally as a team and we also communicate with others externally to ensure that we’re looking at the same information and considering the same factors… this includes operations, transportation, logistics and the manageability of being able to be open the next day.”