02/19/2014 Social media is a way for people to voice their comments and not have to face those the comments are made about. On Monday many were questioning why some area schools were dismissing early since we hadn’t seen the first snowflake. About 3 the skies opened up and drivers in Marshall County experienced white-out conditions. After that comments made on social media questioned why Plymouth Schools didn’t let out early.
Plymouth School Corporation Superintendent Dan Tyree used the school’s website to explain his decisions. The following is his statement:
I received several calls about not letting out early on Monday. True, we knew a storm was on its way, but there were various reports on a start time beginning as early as 11:00 a.m. At 1:30 p.m. when schools were letting out, we did not have a single flake of snow. We did not see that first flake until 3:10 p.m. Ironically, this was during our dismissal. Fortunately, our buses all made it to their destinations and students made it home safe and sound. I really hate sending students home early because in the past I have run into several problems. First, I end up sending students as young as kindergarten home to an empty house. I have also sent students home early and found many homes with no one home and the doors locked. I guess my history with sending students home early has not been good. I find it much safer for students to stay at school until parents and/or daycare is ready for them.
With Tuesday’s cancellation Superintendent Tyree now has another day to determine how it will be made up. The following is his comments on the snow makeup dates.
We have had a long, difficult winter filled with delays, cancellations, make up dates, and frustrations. I would like to thank all of our stakeholders for being patient and understanding with our process. With today’s (Tuesday’s) cancellation, I will have to go back to the drawing board before the next school board meeting on March 4, 2014 to see how we can make up yet another day. Presently, we have the following plans for making up the first four days:
I will ask the Board to use Good Friday as a makeup day. Then, we will go to school on June 4, 5, and 6 to make up the other three days. We used the poll that many of you took part in to reach this conclusion.
Now that we have to make up another day, we may need to look at one of the other options we were given by the state.
