When I asked you all to help figure out the last time Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools let out early for bad weather, I got a flood of winter memories.
Most of you seem to agree it was about 10 years ago, though individuals' memories vary about the details. Turns out that's harder to verify than you might think. Several of us tried checking archives, using a variety of search terms and time frames. We found a lot of stories about winter storms and school closings, but none after 1987 that specified an early dismissal.
Late starts and early dismissals are common in surrounding school districts. But CMS is so much bigger, with complex bus routes serving several schools on morning and afternoon runs, that the standard wisdom has been that the only options are closing school or keeping to a normal schedule.
Most of the folks running CMS now are too new to be tied to those practices. They decided to try letting schools out two hours early. Unlike a closing, that doesn't require a makeup day.
"It's going to be a nightmare. No question," one local mom tweeted shortly after the decision.
But with all the buses back in the garage and all the kids home, it seems to have been more of a minor inconvenience. There was a glitch with the ConnectEd automated calls that sent people who hit callback buttons to Dilworth Elementary School's phone. But from what I and the CMS folks have heard so far, no wrecks and no major problems with the exodus.
Keep me posted -- I realize there could still be developments. Stay off the roads if you can, drive safely if you can't, and enjoy the latest blast of winter.
Friday, January 25, 2013
CMS early dismissal: Thanks for memories
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
38 comments:
My son is a car rider that attends Ardrey Kell and although he should've been dismissed at 12:15pm, he called me shortly after 11:00am to inform me they had dismissed the car riders and he was waiting outside....We have a spot to meet at if I'm not one of the first 10 cars in the afternoon pick-up lane and that's where he met me but from what I could see, things were going pretty smoothly for early dismissal pick-up...Hope everyone arrived to their destination safely...
We moved here in 1998 and I can remember at least one early dismissal due to weather. Probably '98/'99 or '99/'00.
98-99 school year had an early dismissal. I was an assistant principal and remeber it vividly.
I was a teacher about that time and we did have an early dismissal, about 9:30 a.m. The weather folks had not predicted snow, but we had a huge one anyway!
We fed all the students first and then loaded the buses and cars. By the time teachers could leave it was really bad on the roads.
I'm fairly sure there was also an early dismissal (I believe because of winter weather as well) sometime between 2001 and 2004.
CMS had an early dismissal in December 2002, right before the big ice storm. I remember it because it was my first year teaching!
Thanks. I keep checking our archives; I'm finding lots of references to big snows and closings, but so far no early dismissal. I may not be guessing the right wording to search. I've got a message in to Transportation Director Carol Stamper, who would know for sure. But she's a bit busy at the moment.
February 10 or 11, 2004 (a memorable date) was a CMS early dismissal for snow!! It started snowing in a flurry and we left around 10:30 a.m. The north received about 4" and the south about 2". Students (and teachers) were so excited.
I was a student at Butler in 2000 and we were let out early (around noon) because of a snowstorm. That particular storm wasn't even forecasted.
I concur that there was an early dismissal in early 2000. I worked at a large company here in Charlotte and parents were anxious to leave to get to their children and drive them home on that day (versus them taking the buses). Additionally, there was an early dismissal in February 2004. Even private schools called parents and told them to come and get students on that day (before the days of email blasts). The roads were SO BAD that day that it took me one hour to get to that school when it normally took about 15 minutes.
We have had early dismissal once on the last 15 years. I am not one to give our bosses downtown a "good job" on many things but this is one of them.
1999or2000 we had an early dismissal. had kids waiting in the cafeteria at sedgefield middle, dismissing as parentsor buses arrived.
Too bad CMS does not put the same value on all its employees lives and is not consistent in allowing everyone to leave two hours early. All the teachers left right after the students cleared the building. So did administrators. Hourly folks have to stay til 3 o'clock if they want to get paid for a full day depending on what their schedule is. If you want to go home before then you have to use your leave time. Is the fair?
Drive safe, everyone!
Good afternoon/evening for hot cocoa with mini-marshmallows!
Good afternoon/evening to curl up with your littles ones, the cat and a good storybook. Thinking "Good Night Moon" and "If You Give a Moose A Muffin". "Curios George" and "Babar the Elephant" sound good too. Maybe "Charlotte's Web"?
Not sure if it matters how many previous early dismissals CMS has had, but the stories are great. Thanks everyone
Monday January 24, 2000 a surprise snow resulted in an early dismissal. I was in 7th Grade that year and I remember that and the school bus from Fort Mill being stuck in the Lowes Foods parking lot being two big stories that day.
Early dismissal on January 24 (1999 or 2000). It was my son's birthday and he attended Providence High School.
It went smoothly. Both children arrived home by bus without incident. Though, I concur with anonymous 12:28, both Hough and Bradley seem to dismiss 30-40 minutes earlier than the 2 hours early stated in the phone call.
Actaully it was the Fall of 2002 when the ice storm Hit, the week after thanksgiving. Try doing your research!
Yeah, echoing the early 2000 dismissal. I was dismissed from Vance High School in the middle of the day and had to watch my fellow-teenager friend white-knuckle driving through serious snowfall and Southern snow drivers. It was a memorable experience.
Was there or was there not early dismissal on 9/11? I'm remembering that there was...
Annon at 2:59...no reason to be rude or snarky. Not everyone has a perfect memory of when exactly something happened. Everyone else on here is being respectful, maybe you should too.
Snow day! Oops, Ice Day! Where's my orange coaster? Ice, ice, angels. Woo-hoo!
Schools allowed parents pick up their children on 9/11 but there wasn't an official early dismissal. Our elementary school principal wouldn't allow anyone to watch the TV but employees knew something bad had happened. I'm grateful our principal made this decision. My children were in kindergarten and 3rd grade. I remember them being confused as to why I was picking them up and taking them home early.
Jim - there was no early dismissal on 9/11/01. But all after-school activities were cancelled that day. I taught in CMS from 1996 to 2006.
I remember being let out early in January 2000 of my senior year. That was my first real experience of driving in the snow. We had a lot of snow that season.
My elementary school was supposed to dismiss at 2:15. They started dismissing bus riders and walkers at 1:45, car riders at 2:10.
It was 2 early dismissals: One in 98-99 and another in 02-03 when that big ice storm (2 weeks of no power!) C'MON ANN!
Thanks, all! It's pretty clear that there was an early dismissal around 10 years ago. I know a couple of you think I'm being lazy, but I've searched archives several times and ways, and so has a researcher whose skills are amazing. We haven't been able to nail one down, but that doesn't mean it hasn't happened. CMS folks are mostly new, and the folks in transportation who would know are busy getting all the buses home.
When I was a CMS student in the mid to late 1980s, there was a famous day when all the forecasters promised the night before that we'd get ice and then inches of snow the next morning. They were SO certain that CMS the night before, cancelled school for the next day. Guess what, at dawn it was sunny blue skies! That is why CMS now waits until 5am to call it.
Nameless, I remember a similar incident when my son was in middle school and everyone cancelled because of a hurricane that ended up skirting the area. The "hurricane day" was lovely!
Everyone who referenced the ice storm in 2002 is right. My daughter was a kindergartner at Lake Wylie and they did early dismissal then. I was uptown and panicked the whole way home!
My kids were in CMS from 1994 till 2012. I remember being told, when my daughter started kindergarten, that CMS doesn't start late or dismiss early - they're either in, or out. I know many times I went to get them from school because of the weather, but I don't remember them ever closing down early.
Perhaps more importantly, that early dismissal for the ice storm came too late in the day. I remember slipping and sliding all over I-85 driving home from a training class and there being school buses all over the road!
As I recall, they cut kids loose as early as they could because of the time required to fuel and turn the buses around after their last delivery to schools.
The last one was in 2002. I remember it so well b/c I was "selected" to help monitor the students that were waiting for their parents. The last student was not picked up till 4:30PM!!!!! When we inquired with the parent the reason for the delay, it had just began to freezing drizzle at that time, the parent replied that she did not want to leave work and it was our job to watch her daughter. We asked why her daughter could not have taken the bus, the mother said that she did not want her daughter taking the bus! The students were dismissed around 11AM I believe so her daughter would have been safe and sound at home hours earlier!!!!! This year went much smoother. We dismissed around 11:30 and I got to leave around 12:15 so I made it home just as the freezing rain hit. Much safer for everyone involved- teacher-student-parent.
There was at least one in the early 80s. I was a student at McClintock Jr. High, and it was lunch period. It had been snowing on and off since earlier in the day. Some kid in the cafeteria had a transistor radio (remember those?) and apparently it was announced school was cancelled for the rest of the day. Everyone started yelling cheering, jumping up on tables, and throwing square slices of pizza and Sealtest milk cartons. It was glorious.
January 24th in 2000 is the one I remember, confirmed by a calendar I keep too. Schools were dismissed before noon and the bus couldn't make it into our neighborhood. I had to walk to the front of the neighborhood, to walk my second grader home in the snow.
Take a close look at February 26 2004. I was not a CMS parent at the time, so I am not 100% sure that there was an early dismissal. But I do recall that this storm came in a lot faster that anticipated.
Post a Comment