Divided approach in closing schools day after storm

“Come on, guys, grab my hands and watch the puddles,” Cliff Ridgeway called to his two children Friday morning as he ushered them across the rainy street to school at Spring Creek Elementary in Rincon Valley.

The school, along with all the others in Rincon Valley Union Elementary, had just reopened after closing Thursday because of safety concerns brought on by this week’s massive storm.

A few blocks away, Herbert Slater Middle School, part of the Santa Rosa City Schools district, was closed. The only activity on campus came from seagulls wading in a flooded soccer field.

Santa Rosa City Schools, along with some of the other large districts in the county, kept its doors shut for the second day in a row Friday.

Schools around Sonoma County illustrated a divide in districts’ reactions to the winter storm, as officials tried to balance student and teacher safety with the desire to keep students in class.

On Thursday morning, faced with flood warnings and closed roads, 34 of the county’s 40 school districts - including Rincon Valley - ultimately shut down, many of them just as students were arriving at school. That irked many parents who were forced to rearrange their days around the unexpected closures.

To avoid repeating that scenario, many of the same districts, like Santa Rosa City Schools, Petaluma City Schools and Cotati-?Rohnert Park Unified, called off Friday’s classes by Thursday afternoon. The result was more than 30,000 students out for a second day. Officials at these districts could not remember another time school had been closed two days in a row. Other districts, like Rincon Valley Union, looked at Friday’s milder weather forecast and chose to reopen.

“It’s good they’re open today,” Ridgeway said at Spring Creek. He preferred Friday’s scenario to what happened Thursday, when school was canceled after he had already dropped off his kids.

Superintendent Casey D’Angelo said it had been hard to decide Thursday afternoon to reopen Friday, but that he was happy with the outcome.

“Of course, you can never tell what the weather will be like, but it looked like it would stop raining,” he said. “As we went around to the (campuses) today, I realized, ‘Why wouldn’t you be in school today?’ This was definitely the right decision.”

Superintendents who closed school for a second day also stood by their decisions, saying they preferred a cautious approach.

“We still had the factors and concerns for safety we had Thursday,” said Socorro Shiels, Santa Rosa City Schools superintendent. Those concerns included the ability of teachers, many of whom live far away, to get to school with continuing road closures, as well as whether continuing rain would lead to more flooding and other problems at school sites.

“We couldn’t be assured there would only be light rain today,” she said. “We certainly could have done the same thing (we did Thursday) and wait until the morning, but we would have been faced with the same last-minute decision-making.”

Responding to concerns about students missing two days of school just before finals week, Shiels questioned whether quality instruction would have been possible with teachers absent.

“I trust students and staff will be able to find ways to make up for today,” she said.

Shiels said custodians and principals spent Friday morning surveying all the school sites looking for leaks and related damage. They found leaks at many schools but no serious problems, she said.

Robert Haley, superintendent at Cotati-Rohnert Park Unified, said he, too, was glad to give staff time to check the school sites and “make sure everything is safe” for Monday.

“Most people are happy we took the time to recover,” he said, adding that students who need to study for finals have been able to do so from home.

Petaluma Superintendent Steve Bolman said he decided to cancel Friday’s classes after noting numerous road closures Thursday afternoon. There were more roads closed in Petaluma on Friday morning than Thursday morning, he added.

However, he acknowledged it wasn’t “an opportune time” to cancel class, with finals approaching next week for high school students. He said students should have some time early next week to catch up on preparations before finals begin Wednesday.

Parents at those districts had mixed feelings about school being closed a second day, but overall seemed to prefer having advance notice about it to a last-minute cancellation.

“I think it’s a little overkill, a little overcompensation for the lapse of yesterday,” said Bernie Hernandez, whose students attend Santa Rosa City Schools. “But I very much prefer that I know well in advance.”

Brook Herman, whose daughter attends Petaluma City Schools, was irked about the district’s handling of Thursday’s classes, calling it “an epic fail.” But, she said, “I’m actually fine with today’s closure.” She noted that it didn’t stop raining until around 11 a.m. in Petaluma and that several roads were closed. “We’re talking about the safety of our staff, our students, and that should be paramount.”

Students, meanwhile, seemed unanimous in their approval of two days without school.

Montgomery High School student Rebecca Guillory had pulled together a group of friends to hang out downtown near Santa Rosa Plaza on Friday afternoon. They were planning to kill time inside the mall. When asked how she felt about school being out, she laughed and said, “Is that a question? We need the rain, school is out. It’s a win-win.”

She felt she wasn’t missing valuable class time because the week before finals was usually just spent studying anyway.

Maria Casciani, also a student at Montgomery, spent Thursday studying and Friday afternoon out with a friend, celebrating her recent acceptance to Columbia University.

“I’m happy to be out,” she said.

Districts are still determining whether and how they will make up the missed days. Most have 180-day school years, while the state requires only 175 days.

State Superintendent Tom Torlakson announced Thursday that schools will be able to seek credit for class missed on Thursday as a result of “emergency closures.” It was not clear whether they’ll be able to seek the same relief for Friday’s closures.

Staff Writer Jamie Hansen blogs about education at extracredit.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach her at 521-5205 or jamie.hansen@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @jamiehansen.