School closures aim to keep kids safe

MOSES LAKE — It was something of a joke at Thursday evening’s meeting of the Moses Lake School Board, that because of the school days lost so far that district officials would have to find a way to merge graduation with Fourth of July celebrations.

“It’s my tenth year here and we’ve not had a winter like this in a while,” said Eric Johnson, operations director for the Moses Lake School District.

But underneath the joke is something important — keeping kids safe in bitterly cold winter weather.

Johnson told board members his office does everything it can to keep students and staff safe. That means closing schools when the wind chills are in excess of 15 below to keep those kids whose families cannot afford to provide them with adequate winter clothing.

“Closing school is absolutely the right decision,” he said.

Larson Heights Elementary School Principal Diana McFaul told board members that it’s a struggle making sure the kids at her school are warm and have enough food, especially when school is out at Christmas break.

“We try to make sure all our kids have a coat,” McFaul said, noting that the Moses Lake Fire Department recently outfit each kindergartner and first-grader with a new winter coat.

Board member Vicki Groff said she has been asked about school closures on cold mornings, and has had to explain that some kids don’t have adequate winter clothing. No one wants them waiting out in the cold, or the blowing snow, or have them locked out of their homes when parent go to work.

“We want them to be safe,” she said.

In order to decide whether the weather is bad enough to force a school closure, Johnson told the school board he usually gets up between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on mornings when its expected to be cold to check with other school officials and make a decision about whether to delay the opening of the schools or cancel classes altogether.

“I hope not to have more of these, but if it’s not safe to be at school, then we’ll close,” he said.

Johnson also thanked the district’s maintenance crews for working around the clock on Monday after the weekend storm to get school open for Tuesday, making sure the buildings were adequately heated, pipes weren’t frozen, snow was cleared from parking lots, and buses were able to cover the 460-odd miles of routes on time.

“We worked our equipment 25 hours straight to get the snow removed,” Johnson said. “They’ve done an amazing job.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com