9:08 AM

The past weekend was a much appreciated gift. Temperatures hovering near 60 brought many of us outdoors, dodging patches of snow and in search of new life trying hard to emerge from what has been a snow-covered ground and snowbanks five feet high, no exaggeration there.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one who drove around with the window rolled down on either day, because the weather was that generous and we couldn't get enough of the fresh air. With still a ways to go, the snow was far from completely melted, but it was getting pretty close. While outside cooking dinner on the grill Saturday night, I inspected the aftermath from the December ice storm garden for signs of new life and did find some in the Day Lily area. Soon, I knew I would be donning my gardening gloves and bringing life back to the dormant garden. Spring cleaning indoors might have to wait, because if the opportunity presented itself for me to be outdoors, I was certainly going to revise my list of priorities. Some people already have; I heard the neighbors taking advantage of the weather yesterday and the distinct sound of the chain saw while they cleaned up their yard of the debris from the ice storm. Others did not, as their Christmas decorations still adorned their homes. Either way, it was a good sign: spring was definitely going to arrive; we just had to be a little more patient.

Okay, maybe a lot more patient. This morning, I looked out the window to snow. Not just the snow working hard to disappear, but fresh, new and still falling snow. Big, fat snowflakes clung to branches and there were a lot of them. Where on earth did this storm come from? Last Monday, I wasn't surprised. In fact, I knew on Sunday that the kids would be adding yet another day to the end of the school year because there wouldn't be school on Monday due to the intensity of that storm. But today. What happened to a couple of inches? Would this be yet another 4-day school week?

I turned on the TV to the education channel. As I suspected, Londonderry schools were cancelled. Only..., hold on. Back up. Actually, they weren't all cancelled. Just Kindergarten was cancelled. And there were no delays listed for the rest of the district. To verify what I could only assume was some kind of clerical error, I checked the local news, and the district website and they all broadcast the same announcement: Only Londonderry Kindergarten was cancelled. Okay, then. The kids had school!

I broke the news to the boys, and even interjected some sympathy for them because while I understood the superintendent's decision not to cancel had everything to do with the too many days they already missed, this particular storm was alredy wreaking havoc on the roads. I tuned into the scanner and heard nothing but news of accidents here and there and the fire department vehicles being called out to even more. Officers on the road commented on poor road conditions and there was no doubt many were in for a treacherous Monday morning commute, my kids included.

The boys headed out for the bus just after 8 AM, as is their routine. By 8:45 AM, they were still out there waiting, so like any good mother would, I joined them. Poor Joey was shivering, and the bus was no where in site. I brought along my laptop in a plastic bag so I could continue to listen to the scanner. There was a report of a bus stuck on Stonehenge, and since this is the route the boys' bus takes and since it hadn't arrived yet, I could only assume it was theirs. But it must have gotten unstuck because it finally appeared at the top of the hill.

I pushed the button to end my call to the school. I wasn't questioning whether there really was school, but I wanted to know what the protocol was for how long one should wait for the bus before giving up. Was there even a protocol? Isn't it a standing rule to wait for one hour for a professor to show up for class at college before you are allowed to leave?

The bus pulled up to a stop in front of our house at 9:08 AM. School had already started at 8:50, but I'm sure today's tardiness would not be counted against them. With any luck, they would reach the school by 9:45 AM. And once there, they were as good as safe and would stay for the day because hot lunches were already in the making and they were better off there then back on the roads with the rest of the commuters trying to avoid being a reason to dispatch a fire truck or ambulance to yet another accident.


Our driveway that I will need to clear. But I don't have to hurry. Jeffrey's preschool also cancelled school, so the bus can remain parked in the garage for the day.

ADDENDUM:
The principal sent this e-mail at 9:36 AM:
Good morning,

Thanks so much for your flexibility this morning. We do the best we can in predicting the weather. We consult a weather service and work with the bus company to make sure all students will be safe. The storm this morning was much more intense than had been previously predicted. However, it is now 9:30 and all the buses have arrived safely. We will do our best to make sure we have a safe return trip as well. We are hoping to have all the buses here right at 3:00 so that we can get the students home safely.

~~~~~~~~~
And just after noon, we received this letter from the Superintendent:
Dear Parents,

Today, to say the least was not the best of days for all concerned. We greatly appreciate your understanding this morning. At approximately 4:30am we spoke to our private weather service and were told that we would have rain till approximately 11:00am with a switch over to snow at approximately that time of day, with a total accumulation of no more than 2 to 4 inches.

Thus we made the decision to hold school predicated on that information also figuring that the roads would be plowed by dismissal time.

As we all know the weather took a turn for the worse and we received all snow this morning. A number of buses were delayed, a few were stuck for a short period of time, and one Middle School bus was clipped by a snowplow, no injuries have been reported.

Our first concern is always the safety of the children. If the weather report we received had been different, I would have made a different decision.

~~~~~~~~~~~

So, there you have it. No matter what, he has still earned the title of NH Superintendent of the Year and I'll bet every single parent who put in their complaint to him today will the ones who are most thankful come June when that extra day didn't have to be added to make up for today. And for the record, I wasn't one of those parents but I can imagine he got quite an earful judging from the tone of the letter. But! That's why he gets paid what he does, right!?