Decision to cancel or delay school isn’t made lightly

It’s that time of year when snow causes school cancellations and children get sick with the flu, and Johnston’s schools are taking steps to prepare for both.

“When I hear there’s going to be snow I usually don’t get sleep that night,” said Johnston Superintendent Dr. Bernard DiLullo, who makes school cancellation decisions. “I watch, I look out my window to see if there’s snow or to see when it starts snowing. I watch the news to see if they can determine what the track of the storm is.”

While this week’s flurries didn’t cause school to be cancelled, determining whether or not school will take place after a storm is a balancing act. If a decision is made too early and not much snow has fallen, questions arise if school should have been cancelled. If a decision is delayed and a snowstorm worsens, fears climb that students’ return home might be delayed, as was the case in Providence in 2007 when nearly 60 buses were stuck on roads late into the evening after a daytime storm.

“My facilities director is out and about on the roads just to determine how safe the roads are. We work pretty closely with the town and they get their sand trucks out,” said DiLullo. “Johnston has a lot of hills and our buses sometimes have trouble getting up those hills, so the town has been great in terms of sanding, salting and plowing.”

Once children arrive at school, the department takes additional steps to ensure their safety on school grounds.

“Our maintenance department comes in early to sand walkways and to clear parking lots. Essentially, we just kind of make a determination based on the safety factor,” DiLullo said. He said recent snowfalls weren’t too bad at the time kids were coming into school, however, “situations can change.”

Dr. DiLullo monitors what other school districts do during a storm and may call for a delayed opening, early dismissal or a cancellation. If school is cancelled, additional school days will be added to the end of the school year.

“I sometimes conference with other superintendents in our area, the northern superintendents in our area, for example Lincoln, Cumberland, North Providence, Smithfield and Scituate, just to talk about what they’re doing and make a common decision,” he said.

The district uses the Rhode Island Broadcasters Association to announce closings and delays, and the information is disseminated to local television and radio stations so that parents can plan.

“Most parents have signed up for text message alerts, so they get those alerts through the Rhode Island Broadcasters Association.” The superintendent also records a message himself. “I do a rapid notify call” that sends a recorded message that goes to every family and every staff person in the district when school is delayed or cancelled.

If school is in session while the flakes fly, Dr. DiLullo ensures that the student’s learning environment is as comfortable as possible. He said facilities are in good shape and that all schools are warm.

“We’re not having any heating problems. On occasion a boiler may go down, but our facilities director and our maintenance staff go in and take care of it; usually before school starts we’re up and running,” he said.

A storm of another kind is now hitting the state. Last month, the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) detected an increase of viral illnesses throughout the state, with a widespread flu outbreak. Recently, Globe Park Elementary School in Woonsocket was closed after an illness outbreak there.

“We’ve been sending a lot of kids home,” said Sandi Delack, the health services coordinator for the district, who confirmed the district was not immune. About a half dozen students were in her office in various states of distress.

“We’ve been seeing fevers and we’ve been seeing vomiting within the past weeks. We have kids that come in who are literally fine, and then within an hour they’re really sick,” she said.

To prevent the spread of illness, the RIDOH advises students to frequently wash hands often with soap and warm water and to sneeze and cough into the elbow. If students are sick, they should stay home. The RIDOH says people should not share utensils, water bottles or other personal items, as many germs are spread through saliva. The department also recommends students, teachers and parents get an annual flu shot.

According to Facilities Director David Cournoyer, an additional maintenance crew has been brought in after school hours to clean, with special attention being paid to door handles, bathrooms, cafeterias and desks to help prevent the spread of viruses.