How cold is too cold for students? Deciding to close schools 'not a perfect science'

LANSING — How cold is too cold for school?

"I wish I could tell you it involved spoons under pillows or ice cubes in the toilet," said Jason Mellema, superintendent of the Ingham Intermediate School District, referencing the ways children try to manifest a snow day the night before school.

There are a lot of factors that come into play when deciding to cancel classes for the about 44,000 students attending Ingham ISD schools, Mellema said, and making things more difficult is the wide expanse of the ISD, stretching from Stockbridge to Lansing.

The night before or morning of a day where classes might be canceled due to snow or cold, all the superintendents meet. They talk about what areas are impacted the most and what capabilities each school has to make sure each child can get to and from school safely.

The typical conditions the ISD considers when deciding to cancel due to extreme cold is 20 degrees below zero wind chill, Mellema said.

The Eaton Regional Education Service Agency follows a similar model when deciding to close schools.

"Those are really long days for us as superintendents," said Sean Williams, superintendent of Eaton Regional Education Service Agency. "A lot of late night or early morning calls deciding what's best for all the schools in the RESA."

Superintendents gather all the information they can, from National Weather Service reports to what local emergency managers are saying. And what schools pay attention to varies on where they are geographically. Decisions can be different, even within the same RESA or ISD.

"I swear there's a snow belt (in Eaton County)." Williams said. "Maple Valley Schools, which is the westernmost district, has more days off than any other district. It also has the most gravel roads ... That isn't as much of a problem when you get into Potterville or Grand Ledge."

Road conditions are extremely important for superintendents deciding to cancel classes for the day. Even if the snowstorm has passed, drifting snow from high winds can block previously clear roads. Snow that has melted and refrozen due to cold is another issue, Williams said.

"Lots of roads were basically ice rinks," he said of this past week's travel conditions.

Changing road conditions mean that a district might be open one day and closed the next, even though the weather hasn't changed. This was the case in St. Johns Public Schools, which closed Wednesday but was open Tuesday.

Anthony Berthiaume, superintendent of St. Johns Public Schools attributed this to "more snow drifts on secondary roads throughout the district compared to yesterday."

Most superintendents are out driving in the early morning hours to determine whether the conditions are safe enough for students to get to class.

Parents and community perspective are another issue schools contend with. One district might close, but a district 10 miles away might stay open, Williams said.

"People aren't going to be happy with you no matter what you do," he said. "But our job is to both educate these kids and make sure they're safe... No school day is worth a kid's life."

A community's resources are another factor superintendents keep in mind.

"(East Lansing) has its own plow trucks to clear the roads," said Dori Leyko, superintendent of East Lansing Public Schools. "Other districts not in a city rely on the Ingham County Road Department, which might not get to some of the back roads, meaning those kids can't get to school."

Temperature of buses are another concern, Williams said. Buses tend to be cold, with single pane windows and a door constantly opening and closing. This means that the children riding them don't have the luxury of quickly warming up like they would if they were in a car.

"They're essentially metal boxes on wheels," he said. "The average temperature of a school bus in the cold is 50 degrees."

Friday's school closures were based on forecasted weather, said Mellema, adding that deciding on school closures is an "imperfect science".

"We were told the storm would come around noon to 2 ... It was really more like 2 to 4," he said.

Schools tend to err on the side of caution, though.

"Safety is the No. 1 priority," said Ryan Gilding, communications manager for the Lansing School District.

That looks a little different depending on the situation. Children depend on a lot of the services that schools provide to them.

"For a lot of kids, school is a safe, warm place they can go to and rely on for meals ... for adult support they might not get at home." Gilding said.

Ultimately, parents do have the final say in what is best for their children. Superintendents recommend that if a parent questions whether to send their child to school they should call the school.

"Parents have every right to keep kids home," Mellema said.

Contact Sarah Atwood at satwood@lsj.com. Follow her on X, @sarahmatwood.

This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: How cold is too cold? Superintendents explain snow day decisions