HUDSONVILLE, Mich. — Snow days were in effect at several school districts in West Michigan on Tuesday, but not all of them. Different locations require different decisions to be made, but as FOX 17 learned, most districts ultimately use the same process to guide that call.
“It's not one of those things, you wake up, and you think, 'Eh, let the kids sleep in,'" said Dr. Doug VanderJagt, the Superintendent for Hudsonville Public Schools. "I'm sure some kids love it. Maybe most. Nut others, it becomes a challenge. So the priority is just making sure kids are safe.”
That's the bottom line when considering a snow day.
Not just for VanderJagt, but for all superintendents, like Mark Bielang with Portage Public Schools.
"If a bus is delayed, and that student is out there for 10, 15, 20, maybe even 30 minutes waiting for a bus to come in, that's not safe," Bielang told FOX 17. "So if we're going to make an error, we want to err on the side of safety with our students.”
Portage Public Schools were closed Tuesday, marking their third school day in a row shut down over inclement weather.
Bielang made the call in advance Monday night, which he said is rarely the case.
"If we go just on a forecast, that forecast isn't always right," Bielang said. "So we want to get as close to it as what we can. So, usually by five o'clock in the morning, we're making our call.”
Bielang said the district is in constant communication with the road commission and the city to assess the driving conditions, plus they have their own team of people testing the streets.
VanderJagt and Hudsonville Public Schools do the same thing, with a crew hitting the roads at 4:30 in the morning.
"If it's hard to see the road, that's a good indicator," VanderJagt said regarding what they look for. "If we have a hard time stopping at intersections, that's a good indicator. If our parking lot simply cannot stay clear, that's a good indicator.”
Both VanderJagt and Bielang said what it really comes down to isn't necessarily snow totals or travel situations. Instead, the key factor is temperature.
Any time the windchill hovers around 20-below-zero, they'll likely call a snow day.
That was the case on Tuesday for Portage, which it's a little chillier, but not in Hudsonville.
"It's cold, it's not quite cold enough," VanderJagt said. "We want our kids in school. We care about our kids. We can educate them a lot easier if they're in person and sitting here.”
