Why Should Delaware Care?
On Saturday, Gov. Matt Meyer said he had spoken with superintendents in New Castle County to determine which roads, sidewalks and bus stops remain unsafe, and that the Delaware Department of Transportation would be clearing those streets ahead of school on Monday. But even though the Colonial School District opened its doors on Monday, it was unable to provide transportation to all communities because of remaining road conditions.
Days after Gov. Matt Meyer said it was “unacceptable” that Delaware schools remained closed nearly a week after a crippling snowstorm swept through the state, some students in the Colonial School District were still unable to go to school Monday because of road conditions.
Last week, parts of Kent County received more than 6 inches of snowfall on Sunday, while New Castle County saw up to 10 inches, according to the National Weather Service. Freezing rain in some areas then added an inch of solid ice atop that accumulation.
Temperatures have remained frigid in the days since the storm, and much of the snow has compacted into a dense layer of ice, which has stifled cleanup crews, according to state and city transportation officials.
On Saturday, Meyer said he had spoken with each New Castle County superintendent and “received lists of roads, sidewalks and bus stops that remain unsafe.”
Meyer added that the Delaware Department of Transportation would be clearing those streets over the weekend to ensure schools could open their doors on Monday.
Still, transportation was not available to multiple communities in the Colonial School District on Monday. Those communities included Rosegate, Garfield Park, and Willow Grove, among others.
Colonial Superintendent Jeff Menzer said the district originally released a statement Sunday night saying the district would not be able to pick up students from 11 neighborhoods along Route 9 and one in the lower half of the district due to difficult driving conditions.
Many district bus drivers then reported back to officials that they were unable to finish their routes early Monday morning. Menzer said the district pushed out information to the district’s middle and elementary school families that buses would not be able to pick up students.
Menzer said attendance was down in some of the schools that were part of the impacted communities, such as Eisenberg Elementary School and McCullough Middle School.
Attendance across the district was at roughly 60% to 70% on Monday.
The Brandywine, Red Clay Consolidated, and Christina school districts also reopened their doors on Monday, following Meyer’s weekend announcement.
Some of those districts, though, also experienced complications with picking up students.
Although the Red Clay Consolidated School District’s transportation went well, one bus did temporarily get stuck in a neighborhood, Director of Transportation Kelly Shahan wrote in a statement to Spotlight Delaware. The incident occurred before the bus had picked up any students, and it only resulted in a minor delay, Shahan said.
The Christina School District also wrote to families on Sunday, saying there may be some “unavoidable delays due to neighborhood conditions, which could mean that wait times at bus stops will be longer than usual.”
The Brandywine School District successfully ran all bus routes on a staggered schedule, though some stops and sidewalks still pose a challenge to students, according to a statement from Superintendent Lisa Lawson.
Brandywine will also be returning to its regular bus and school schedules on Tuesday, Lawson said.
All four school districts also said students will not be marked late because of the weather. Districts are also offering excused absences to families who do not feel comfortable sending their children to school with the road conditions.
What’s happening in Colonial?
Menzer said the district had shared a list of priority areas and roads that were impassable with DelDOT on Jan. 29, but his district was not seeing improvements late last week. By Jan. 31, the ice was too thick for salt to help break down the compact, Menzer said.
C.R. McLeod, a spokesperson for the Delaware Department of Transportation, said in a statement the department had to apply salt to the roads and wait for the sun to melt enough ice for plowing to be effective in neighborhoods.
“We’ve been in communication with the [Colonial] school district and expect to see improvement today and tomorrow with temperatures above freezing,” McLeod wrote.
Last week, Colonial Supervisor of Transportation Marc Emerick told Spotlight Delaware the district’s smaller neighborhoods, “who are digging themselves out,” were the most impacted by the storm.
“If you are fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood with a DART route, you know that at least some of your roads are going to be tended to by DelDOT, which is the most effective way of clearing a road,” he said.
Communities that are not near a DART route or roads that DelDOT plows typically rely on contractor services to clear the snow.
But Emerick said districts must also check the passability of streets, because some contractors’ plows do not create a path wide enough for school buses. If a bus gets stuck or experiences a minor fender-bender that does not impact student safety, it can still delay students’ pickups for an hour.
Colonial’s buses go into neighborhoods and pick students up close to their homes. At the same time, more than half of Colonial’s bus fleet are 84-passenger, flat-nose buses that require a wider turn radius than typical buses, Menzer. said
Menzer said those two factors complicated student pick-ups on Monday.
“Even though our drivers had driven the routes and checked them out in their personal vehicles, it’s different,” Menzer said. “You don’t really know until you get your bus upon it and realize, ‘Man, I can’t make that corner.’”
The district also adjusted its bus stops for students in the communities it had previously suspended transportation to, with buses picking students up at main streets in those communities rather than going down side streets.