GA schools closed Mon.&Tues. to conserve fuel

[angelmom]

There are several problems with taking "snow days" now....
1) This is Georgia; we do not have "snow days" built into the calendar.
2) Adding two days onto the end of the school year doesn't work for the majority of our high schools. We are on the 4 Block system. Basically, there will now be 88 days in the fall semester and 92 days in the spring semester.
3) We do not have half days here for anything. Even kindergarten is a full day.
4) Parents who do know about the situation are SCRAMBLING for child-care. (I am very concerned about those who will, without fail, leave young children home alone because they have no choice.)
5) Could the man/men (Perdue & company) not have given everyone a week to prepare? Make the option Oct. 3/4 OR Oct. 10/11. Some parents would have Columbus Day off anyway and could stay at home with their kids.

People here are about 50/50. Some DO want to conserve fuel (myself included); we just need some warning ahead of time to prepare. Our district keeps four weeks of fuel in reserve for these situations. (Gas prices jumped 40 cents per gallon after this announcement.)

Not sure where you are, but I am also a teacher in metro Atlanta. We have snow days built into the school year, and we never use them all. They are usually added back in to a mid-winter break in February. All of our activites were canceled as well, including Sunday School at our church (which is Sunday, Monday, and Wednesday).

As for the parents who are scrambling, I don't understand this. They have had all weekend to figure it out. The entire state knows about it. It's not a surprise to anyone's boss. People are being encouraged to telecommute. Non-essential workers are being asked to stay home. On a snow day you have about an hour to figure it all out, and when we do have a snow day it usually isn't bad enough to close all the businesses, so it's the same type of situation. If your child wakes up sick, you have those issues without any warning and less empathy from your boss - plus you can't leave them with someone else.

Friends of mine who are allowed to work from home only occasionally are being allowed to do it more. Traffic is lighter. I think the whole experience will teach us all about how much gas we really waste. Although I do drive a big car, we have a big family and my car is usually full of people. We live and work in a 2 mile radius. I drive almost anywhere we go with others b/c I can fit so many people in my car - otherwise we'd have to drive 2 or more cars. I carpool to meetings and events a lot.

As for doing it later, I read a media report today that said that we would have had an emergency school closing by Thursday if we had not done it voluntarily. The pipeline was down and is now running sporadically. After Katrina we had a panic and the gas stations were out of gas for days. Now all of the stations still have gas and the prices are actually about the same as before Katrina.

The parents here are freaking out. It is ridiculous. The worst comment I heard was a mother who actually complained about having to "babysit" her children. I'm sorry, but when they are your kids, it isn't babysitting. It made me ill and sorry for her kids to hear those words come out of her mouth. I wish people would realize that having kids means that stuff happens...fingerpaint on the carpet, vomit, snow days...they don't fit into your Daytimer. If you wanted a perfectly ordered life, you should have gotten fish instead.

JMHO.

 

[Pandora]

Zoo Atlanta has stepped up to the plate today. They are dropping the student price for admission ($12.00) $5.00 to $7.00.

Angelmom, I am in northeastern Georgia; we use our snow days for snow and tornadoes. Since we make an effort not to go over two, they have always been "forgiven." Perhaps not scheduling snow days was short-sighted of our BOE, but it has never been a problem. Our district has a four-week supply of diesel on-hand at all times. This "shortage" would not have impacted us. We are in a rural area where child-care on short notice is simply not available.