Surprise Snowstorm Snarls School Scheduling in Putnam Valley

Putnam Valley families had more than just slippery roads to contend with Thursday, January 28.

While traffic and weather reporters were advising everyone to stay off roads because of icy conditions, buses had picked up students for both the PV High School and Middle School and delivered them to their buildings, as usual. But as conditions worsened, the administration decided to establish a 2-hour delay for the Elementary School—which begins classes just after 9am— and, shortly thereafter, decided to cancel school altogether.

The situation was both aided and complicated by the fact that it's mid-term and New York State Regents testing time; so while the district's fleet of buses was set to pick up students who had finished their morning testing at about 11:30am, there were many students who needed to remain on campus for afternoon testing.

Reached for comment, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Marc Space explained that very early on Thursday morning, "we had received our usual winter weather statements," and decided to go ahead with school. But, "about 7am I could see the snow, and I checked with my transportation guy. We made a decision about 8:30 that in the best interest of the safety of the kids we should delay it [the elementary school opening.] We worked with the information we had at the time."

Officially, Dr. Space added, school was canceled for the day at around 9:50 to 9:55am. PVMS and PVHS students were already in their buildings, he explained, and about 70 children who had been dropped off early at PVES needed to be dealt with, as well.

The Regents testing was problematic. "We considered canceling the afternoon Regents session, but we decided to go ahead with it. You can't make up the test," Space said. "Last year we had to cancel a Regents exam because of the weather and we had parents upset." This year, "we believed strongly that conditions would be okay for kids to leave later in the afternoon," as long as they provided their own transportation home.

The PVCSD now employs the Connect-Ed emergency notification system, using both telephone and email to provide emergency notification. Connect Ed can send out thousands of messages to parents and staff within minutes. Notices were sent out for both the delay and the closing announcements, but Space admitted that parents had already called complaining that they hadn't received them. "We're looking into that," he stated.

PTA representatives confirmed that given the poor condition of the roads at such a critical hour, things went relatively smoothly. Asked if there was anything he would have done differently this time, Dr. Space replied, "No, no."