Lexington, Fayette schools must do better with snowy roads and getting kids to class | Opinion

The news that Fayette County schools would be closed on Monday — the fifth day in a row — brought a collective groan across social media Sunday.

District officials said about 20 percent of the roads were impassable, in spite of warming temperatures that were expected to reach into the 40s on Monday.

“Are we allowed to complain yet?” parent and former school board candidate Matthew Vied said on Facebook.

“What must the road condition percentage be to justify complaining? How impotent must a school system be before accountability is allowed? So, we can’t go back to school until 100% of roads are dry?”

Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI) days are a big improvement over regular snow days because it gives kids some work to do and keeps the school year from bleeding into June. They’re also helpful on days, like last week, where it’s too cold and snowy for kids to stand at bus stops or walk to school.

But a whole week of them feels like a flashback to pandemic times when parents had to juggle work schedules and oversee their children’s online work.

Monday had warmed to 29 degrees by 10 a.m. We asked district spokeswoman Dia Davidson about why Monday couldn’t have had a two-hour delay as the temperatures warmed.

“The weather has simply not cooperated with us,” she responded.

“Due to persistent below freezing temperatures, the snow and ice that is already packed on neighborhood roads has not fully defrosted. So, by the time school would have started using a delay today, area road conditions would not have improved for buses to safely navigate.”

The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government has an intricate snow plowing plan, which emphasizes clearing big corridors before neighborhood streets. But three days after Thursday and Friday’s snow dump, it seems like there would be time to clean up neighborhoods, too.

Public Works Commissioner Nancy Albright told council members on Monday that “between the total accumulation and the temperatures, this storm did not trigger the level of response that would have had our crews working on the unranked roads over the weekend.”

So, here are some questions that need addressing:

▪ Does the city need more funding for snow removal so that three days after a big snowfall, more streets would be clear? Surely the 20 percent that was the problem on Monday could have been addressed without too much trouble?

▪ Could the school district look at more creative solutions when faced with days like Monday? One in five students who can’t take the bus means four students could. Could alternative routes be designed so that some schools could be in person and parents could choose between in person and NTI?

We know from COVID times that in-person school is a crucial to our kids’ mental and academic well-bring. We’ve seen the proof in the learning loss that teachers are still working to amend. NTI is a useful tool, but not one we should rely on for a week at a time.

We also know the district is in an impossible situation of being unable to please everyone in these scenarios.

Thanks to climate change, our weather is only getting more unpredictable and extreme. It’s time for school and city officials to do more to seek and employ creative solutions to getting our kids to their classrooms and keeping them there as much as possible.

This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 11:40 AM.