January 31, 2007

The www.deercreekschools.org web site reports a proposed schedule for making up the six days missed because of weather.

Already planned events such as the Middle School Washington DC and New York trips will not be changed. Please contact your children's schools if you have questions about specific programs that might be affected.

January 22, 2007

"The district has set February 12th as the deadline to have a decision about when we will make up our 4 days that were missed last week." -- Principal Toni Jones, MS Monday News 1/22/07

Parent Post:

I think it’s very sad that a teacher's dedication would be questioned when they too had children to pick up, students to drive home and some live far from our district but make that drive everyday because they love Deer Creek. I think we forget sometimes that the teachers are often parents also.

Our Reply:

We Agree. We almost did not include that section of the post. Attacking teachers is one thing we said we would not do on our website, but we just felt it was necessary to include that statement this time.

We also find it ironic that the number one complaint of our website is ‘what are we teaching our children by doing it?’ Why aren’t those same people asking, What did the school administration teach our children by keeping the school open?

Parent Post:

Yes - I feel it is griping unless an alternate idea or solution is presented. Anyone "waiting" for permission to come check their children out or an announcement from the school that it is OK to get their children has to make me wonder. I totally respect anyone wanting to get their children yesterday; I did the same thing. I just wasn't all freaked out and upset that the school didn't grant me permission to make that decision.

I think that placing an announcement on the website was fine - I know they were deluged with calls, as well. I did wonder about the calling or emergency tree - we signed up for it at the beginning of the year and this would have seemed to be an occasion to use it. Regarding the television announcement, again there was no announcement about Edmond or PC either. What should the crawl on TV read...come and get your kids if you want?

All I'm saying is, as a parent, someone has the time at noon yesterday to get on the computer and complain about what is going on. Why not go to your child's school and help out? Answer phones, assist parents checking out students or supervise children whose parents are not able to pick them up until after school. Volunteer to make the situation better, add a helpful comment or suggestion, don't just sit back and wait for someone else to take action and then gripe (yes - gripe) about it anonymously.

And, by the way, many teachers were released to go home before children were even picked up. That is the part that made me wonder. In fact my child's teacher was one of the first to leave. If there is anything to discuss it would be the fact that a teacher's dedication to her students is less than the concern they have for getting himself/herself home more easily.

Luckily, the weather we are talking about yesterday was sleet and not a solid sheet of ice. This topic is definitely worthy of discussion and knowing in advance how situations will be handled. But bring something to the table, not just complaints with no helpful thoughts or ideas, is what I'm saying.

Our Reply:

The only other alternative solution was to close the schools. Which, for the record, is what the parent was suggesting with their post. After seeing all of the decisions this administration has made, I try to limit the amount of times I put my children’s safety in their hands.

We as a group have been trained to go to the television or radio for announcements of school closings. Other schools had posted “Voluntary Release at 11:30 am”. Not that difficult to do. Remember that not everybody has Internet access so the best solution is to broadcast your message over as many different media outlets you can.

As for helping and volunteering, many of us have signed up to be part of the “Emergency Calling Tree”. We could have helped and volunteered if somebody/anybody had started the calling tree. As for adding a helpful comment or suggestion all the administration would have to do is read our website and they will find many helpful comments and suggestions. Oh by the Way many of the comments and suggestions on this website have been brought to the administrations attention first. But their lack of commitment or concern has led people to ‘gripe’ on our website.

As for teachers leaving early, you kind of made our point for us. Why keep the schools open when it is obvious to everyone that they should have been closed. I would not question anybody’s or any teacher’s commitment for leaving early. It would make me feel good that the individuals teaching our children were smart enough to make the right decision and go home. I would rather the teachers live to see another day to teach again. Just as I would rather Everyone Live to See Another Day.

One final point. If it was okay to come and pick up our kids early, why wasn’t it okay to close the school? With all of the commotion and chaos there wasn’t any instruction going on at the schools. Could it be we were more concerned with making up a school day then we are about our children’s safety? Don’t hand me the children had no parents at home routine either. If such is the case, why didn’t the administration put some kind of plan in place ahead of time to deal with situation? Oh they have and it is called the “Emergency Calling Tree”.

Fortunately this situation has passed with out incident.

January 13, 2007

Parent Post:

They did a fine job today with the weather being what it was. Since children were already at school, what are they to do? I am fortunate enough to be a stay-at-home-parent but many parents work and may not be able to get there before school ends to pick-up their children. I, in fact, waited to head to the school because I knew there would be a crowd picking-up students early. The was no imminent danger- the kids are perfectly safe at school and the administration had a reasonable plan. Our principal was in the lobby, overseeing that things were going smoothly. I was watching the DC website and appreciated the fact that an announcement was posted. I will be interested to see what the gripe is about how things went today...some people need to broaden their vision to others' situations, have some respect and patience. Working in the education field, dealing with so many issues deserves that. I am thankful for our folks at Rose Union and the Middle School (where I picked up today) and think they are doing a great job.

Our Reply:

Absolutely the Staff at the Middle School did a wonderful job as I am sure the other schools did too. People must also remember that the decision to close school comes from the Superintendent and not the individual school principals. Some of the questions that we do have are:

• Why was the early dismissal only posted on the website?
• Why wasn’t it posted on the television and radio?
• Why weren’t emails and calling trees used?

In this case the reason for not closing the schools early was the safety issues with sending young kids home to empty houses. Well this reason holds little to no water. While we respect the fact there are individuals that can’t be home for various reasons, why would you put the rest of the student population in harms way? And it is kind of Ironic that if any of the teachers had small children they couldn’t be home for them because of this decision.

There is no doubt that the kids were safe in school. The safety concerns are about when they are driven home on the Buses. That is where the imminent danger comes in to play. As the parent stated they went and picked up their children. Imagine all the parents that don’t have that opportunity and the anguish they must have felt when their kids were riding the buses. The accumulation of ice was considerably higher as the day progressed, which in turn, made it increasingly dangerous for the busses.

Is it truly ‘griping’ when somebody is concerned for the safety of their child?

January 12, 2007

Parent Post:

It is noon Friday and the roads are terrible, every school around us is being safe and letting the kids and staff go home....what are they waiting for, it is not getting better.

Our Reply

There is more to say but we need to time to put it together. In the meantime, the message below is posted on the Deer Creek Schools website.

DEER CREEK WEATHER UPDATE
Friday, January 12, 2007 11:30 a.m.

Due to the safety of our younger children whose parents cannot be at home, our bus routes will run close to the regular times. We will begin our secondary routes 30 minutes earlier to ensure as best as possible that our elementary routes can run on schedule. Any parent who wishes to check out their student at any time today, may do so without penalty.

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