KCS Inclement Weather Decisions: The More Things Change, The More Things Stay The same…

I barely even know what to say when I see decisions like today. Five years ago, I watched Kingsport City Schools lock their students out of buildings for a year and a half during the pandemic. Where was the KCS collective conscience then? Kids in poverty weren’t getting fed regularly. Many didn’t have internet in order to do their school work. Instructional time being protected was an afterthought. The emotional damage done to many students was immense and life altering regardless of income.

At 7:53AM this morning at the airport, the temperature was 3.9 degrees Fahrenheit. TVA had requested that customers reduce power usage due to anticipated record demand due to the frigid temps. The National Weather Service had posted Cold Weather Advisories for all of the region. In Kingsport, we needed a 1-2 hour delay in order to let temperatures moderate for walkers. We didn’t get it. Some of you may scoff and say schools should never be closed or delayed due to cold. My answer to you would be that this is probably the point in the article in which you need to move on, because this isn’t gonna be one of those gently written articles where we all sing kum-by-yah at the end.

This was just a terrible, terrible decision today. I worked as a teacher in Kingsport for eighteen years. I have seen first hand what days like today look like for elementary school kids who walk to school. Many kids come to school in hoodies. They don’t have gloves. Their shoes have holes in them. Some show-up only in t-shirts. Some are still in the shorts that they wore to school the day before. Most can’t or won’t wear a toboggan hat. They leave their homes in the darkness, and arrive at school just as the sun rises.

This is the second time this year that students have been sent when the weather called for a delay or closing(and I am not even counting Helene…another story altogether!). I wrote an article about the other one. AND I AM GOING TO KEEP WRITING ARTICLES, until Kingsport stops this practice of trying to be the toughest kid on the block and trying to win a “sissy test” by being the last to close or the only system to remain open on a regular schedule. On January 17, 2013(that should be about right), the system let students out late, and busses were stuck all over the place – and they had been warned. During 2015, the sidewalks were iced over and the decision was made to send students. We had leadership in Nashville, and they evidently forgot they still had a school system to run back in Kingsport. The parents at my school complained during 2015. The next month our school was put on the master plan to be permanently closed – true story.

Folks, this isn’t Fairbanks, Alaska. Many students are not prepared for this type of cold. School delays are designed to allow for conditions to improve so that school can be held safely.

I highly doubt a single person at Central Office or on the Board of Education had one of their own children walking to school this morning for 4-5 blocks. I can guarantee you they didn’t do that without a coat or in broken down shoes or only a t-shirt. Why is that? Because it is miserable and and preventable.

So I challenge the BOE and ASC on mornings like this. Get up before dawn, leave your gloves in the car, grab your worst pair of shoes, put on a t-shirt, grab a hoodie if you must, go park your car five blocks from school, find a group of walkers, and walk with with them. See it through their eyes. Listen to their story. See their hands turn chalky white and chapped by the time they reach the doors. Watch as other families zoom by, warm in their own cars. Be thankful as the sun rises, because the cold will be a little less. Literally, go walk a mile in their shoes.

I understand the need to protect instructional time. My wife and I fought relentlessly for 18 months to get schools open during COVID. We talked to anyone and everyone who would listen. We knew the price that students were paying due to loss of instructional time. We saw that price paid in the lives of our own children – lost relationships, missed graduations, lost instructional time. Each student lost 1,000s of hours of quality instruction. Almost all of that was preventable. In this backwards world of decision making, KCS was fighting for that one hour today…yet we locked students out of building for thousands of hours just five years ago.

A 1-2 hour delay isn’t going to ruin a day, but a child who is 5-6 years old sure might appreciate the compassion needed to make their day a little bit more tolerable. With a simple delay, students can still get breakfast. They can still be taught. They can still be nurtured. By allowing for the sun to come up, that long walk in the cold becomes slightly more tolerable.

It is time for our school system to grow up and move into the 21st century. There is a fine line between courage and stupidity, and today(and many other previous days during the past several decades) we were on the wrong side of that line.

ProTip: Washington County schools generally make their decisions(when possible) prior to 6:00PM the previous day. This allows for childcare plans to be made. This allows for family schedules to be adjusted. Washington County doesn’t ring their hands. They just make the decision and go with it. They were simply masterful during Helene. They stopped what they were doing, and focused on helping others. Phone calls went out each day about where to eat, where aid stations were, and how people could help. They will probably run out of snow days. I can live with that. They did what was right. On the other hand, I should note that Kingsport City Schools(against the loud advice of many) tried to send their students to school immediately after Helene. Many families in Kingsport lacked power at home(our street was out), and couldn’t even get warm showers. It finally took the water plant going down for KCS to see the light. The water in the river that day was a nasty color (yellow with a bit of orange) with upstream debris. In Washington County, they still fed students at schools and even took busses to neighborhoods.

Final Note: Back in December, we notified two school board members of the problem. One board member responded. One did not. And here we are making the same mistake again. From here on out, we will be using this blog and social media to raise public awareness so that KCS will make better decisions regarding bad weather in the future. If public pressure is what is required, then public pressure will be applied. Enough is enough. Get this fixed!