As New York moves into the winter months, snow management becomes more prevalent, even among educators. 

“Our staff begin at 3:30 in the morning by driving various parts of the city, our transportation department,” said Rob DiFlorio, chief of operations for the Syracuse City School District.

He said at around 4:30 a.m., he and other staff members get on a call with transportation and facilities department personnel. 

“The 4:45 to 5 o’clock call, we make a decision whether we’re going to open, close or do a delay,” DiFlorio explained. 

He said it’s more difficult to make the decisions when the snow fall comes later, between 7-9 a.m. That’s why the school districted implemented a two-hour delay policy.

“The high school students will be virtual, but … the pre-K to elementary students will come to the school building at a two-hour delay,” said DiFlorio. 

The high schoolers use the Centro buses for transportation to and from school because there aren’t enough school buses. If the district is on a delay, they aren’t able to use Centro buses because they are picking up the public. The school district now allows the high schoolers to do virtual learning. 

“All of them have one-on-one devices, and we do have hotspots for students that need internet access,” said DiFlorio. 

“That’s the question we ask: ‘Is it safe for our students and our staff and our school busses to be on the roads?’ ” said Joe Palmer, superintendent for Frankfort-Schuyler Central School District, a smaller and rural district.

Palmer said they do have two-hour delays, but it’s typically used for snow cleanup on the roads. 

“And if we can stay on top of the cleaning of the roads to get us not only in school safely, but we have students that leave half-day to go to BOCES programs. So we have to have them traveling around lunchtime,” said Palmer. 

New York state requires that students are in school for 180 days and allows up to five snow days. It’s only December and both school districts have already used a couple snow days, so discussions may have to be had on how to make up those days if they go over. 

“I would love to have more conversations at the state level of some flexibility with that. As long as we’re meeting the instructional-hour needs, because students need to be with their teachers and with their peers for a certain number of hours in order to get the education they deserve in New York,” said Palmer.