Hartland Schools Respond to Tuesday's School Closings

With a hectic weather-related school closing on Tuesday morning following bus delays and the late closing of Farms Intermediate and all the elementary schools, some questioned the school-closing procedures in Hartland Schools.

In response, Hartland sent out a message to parents on their school Facebook page:

Hartland Schools would like to thank parents for their patience today. In typical Michigan fashion, the weather and road conditions changed dramatically between 4:00 - 6:00 a.m., particularly on the many dirt roads in the district, creating extremely difficult commutes for our high school and middle school buses. This forced the district, for the safety of the remaining K - 6 students, to close school for them. Obviously making the call this late causes great hardship for our families and staff, but was necessary for the safety of our students. Thank you also to our bus drivers who did their best under extremely difficult circumstances to transport our students to the high school and middle school.

How many days until spring?

The district gives some information about School Closings on their website. Here's some of what it says:

Plan ahead

Emergency situations can be a hectic experience for parents and students. Even worse is the rare occasion when it is necessary to send students home early. Many questions need to be answered immediately to allow you to plan for the care of your children, and attempted communication with the school, met with repeated busy signals, can be very frustrating. Communicating with your child ahead of time can help alleviate panic during this stressful time.

Which weather forecast does the district use?

WHMI- Tune your radio to WHMI in Howell 93.5 FM. They are the first to be notified and will provide the most current information. If you have a radio alarm, put it on this station, even on days when you don't expect that school may be closed, You may receive a surprise, such as a power problem at school.

What happens in the event of a delay?

Here's what the school-closing plan has to say about this option:

1 HOUR DELAY

All students will ride the same bus with the same type of pick-up structure as under normal circumstances other than that bus will arrive at the regular pick-up stop approximately one hour later than usual. No structure changes will exist other than the time element. Under a one-hour delay, morning kindergarten classes will be held. There will be no vocational education classes.

2 HOUR DELAY

Under a two-hour delay, all students will be picked up as usual, except two hours later than on a regular schedule. Under a two-hour delay, there will be NO A.M. KINDERGARTEN. There will be no vocational education classes.

Above all, make plans ahead of time for these situations and make sure your children understand them. All students who are unable to be dropped of at home will be taken to the latchkey facility at the Village Elementary. If your child is missing, call the bus garage to verify if they were taken to Village Elementary.

Bus delays

On Tuesday morning, many of the buses carrying high school and middle school students were delayed on many of the area back roads. On the Hartland Patch Facebook page Tuesday morning, several parents expressed their frustrations — with the weather, the roads, the bus delays and the decision to keep some of the schools open.

"Back roads are ridiculous," Patch reader Theresa Schwartz Jager wrote. "School should have been called off for ALL of the schools. Bus hasn't arrived at our location yet and my kids were waiting out there for an hour and are soaked....they ARE NOT going to school today. What is Hartland thinking?"

Hartland Schools made the decision to use a Snow Day for Farms Intermediate and the four elementary schools around 7:30 a.m., which had some parents commending the district for choosing to close for the day.

"I think, as happened two years ago, the roads were ok when they did the a.m. drive. Then it started raining harder and got worse," Patch reader Marcia Krol Petersen wrote on the Facebook page. "The busses were all out by that time. Not sure how they could have predicted this. I give them credit for making the call for the later opening schools."

Did you have a Hartland student(s) on a bus this morning? How long did it take them to get to school?