Latest / On the Record with Bossier Schools / Special Episode | Bossier Schools Winter Storm Update

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Special Episode | Bossier Schools Winter Storm Update · On the Record with Bossier Schools

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  Wintry weather is on the way and we are keeping you in the loop as
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  Bossier Schools monitors the situation. Hi everybody, I'm Sonja Bales and I'm
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  Jason Roland. Thank you so much for joining us for this special episode of
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  On the Record with Bossier Schools. It's Friday, January 23rd and Bossier Parish
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  and Bossier Schools, we are bracing for a potential dangerous weather event as we
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  head into the weekend. Yeah, Bossier Schools is actively working with the
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  National Weather Service and emergency management officials in preparation for
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  the arrival of the winter storm, which is expected to start sometime late tonight
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  into tomorrow. That part, you know, we're still trying to monitor. We've been
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  participating in daily weather briefings with the National Weather Service as
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  well as our local officials about coordination efforts. A winter weather
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  warning takes effect at 6 o'clock this evening and because of that, all school
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  activities and operations are canceled throughout the Parish of Bossier
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  Schools as of that time and throughout the weekend. So what do we do? We wait.
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  If you can predict it, you can prepare for it and you can maybe prevent some of
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  the things that are happening. So there's a lot of things that go into play with
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  what we're facing. A lot of information we gained yesterday. Meteorologists from
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  the National Weather Service have given us a litany of information about what
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  to expect and then some even some comparisons back to 2021 that I thought
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  was extremely helpful in assessing the things that happened around Bossier
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  Schools then and then the potential for what happens now. And so as we get into
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  our discussion this morning, we want to be able to share some of those things,
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  how that is comparing to what we've experienced in the past and the lessons
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  we've learned. And one thing we can assure our audience and our community
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  is, is we're going to be communicating over communicating, if you will. And
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  that expectation will be at four o'clock just about every day with the
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  exception of Saturday. We thought this would be a good opportunity to just to
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  be able to share some perspective with you about how the district goes about
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  making its decisions and also answer some of the questions that may be on
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  your mind. We certainly hear oftentimes whenever we are faced with winter
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  weather events like this one. So, you know, first off, why not go ahead and
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  call it? I know that people want to know why we don't go ahead and cancel
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  school on Monday. Well, first of all, we live in Louisiana and it could be 85
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  tomorrow. I mean, so the weather is and that's tongue in cheek me saying that.
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  But still, we feel fairly confident now about some of the things that are
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  predicted. Let's let's keep in mind people get excited about a snow day,
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  right? A snow day and out of school. But a snow day and an ice day are two
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  different spectrums. And so the ice is what we're really concerned about and
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  the impact it has on the infrastructure, not only for our school system, but for
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  our entire community. And that's a wide range, according to the meteorologist
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  of how much we could actually expect versus get. So that's part of the
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  waiting game just to see how much accumulation there is. Also another
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  question about bus transportation. How does that factor into our decision
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  whether or not to have school? Well, being basically by and large a rural
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  parish, we have to consider a lot of the roads that are buses traveled down on.
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  So a lot of the roads are covered with trees or there may be not covered with
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  trees, but they're in the shade. And so the opportunity for a fall sometimes
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  prevents us from doing things as fast as we want to. In the city, we may see
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  things that are just clean and clear, but we got to also consider what
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  happens with all the roads that all of our fleet may travel on each and every
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  day. You bring up a really good question because during 2021 snow again, not
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  because what it ended up being called. Those rural roads did remain icy. We
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  had thought out, we had sun and people were out and about within Bozer City,
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  if you will. So is it all for one, one for all, as far as reopening our
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  schools? Or could we potentially look at some of those schools in the rural
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  areas, not reopening when the ones within the city do? Absolutely. We have
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  in the past allowed for partial openings where we can. We want to get
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  as many kids back in the school as possible. But the main thing, and we
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  talk about this across the board, safety is the priority for motor
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  schools. And so if there's any chance that we're going to put somebody in
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  jeopardy of child in jeopardy, we just, we just refuse to take that chance. You
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  know, the snowmageddon was, was different. Snowmageddon was sleet,
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  snow, sleet, snow, pause, snow, sleet, snow, sleet. So it was, it was, and
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  that's different than ice. And as we learned yesterday, a third of an inch
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  of ice is crippling. Yes, it is, especially in our power lines. Yeah,
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  especially on our, on our, our ability to maintain electricity, a half inch to
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  an inch of ice. As they said, air quote could be catastrophic. So we're not
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  willing to scare anyone. But let's again, if we, if we can predict it, we
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  can prepare for it and hopefully we can prevent some of the things, some of the
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  challenges that we face from an ice storm. So let's talk a little bit about
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  how those are schools is preparing, um, to hopefully prevent any sort of power
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  outage, but how to power outages, but also, uh, burst water pipes. Well,
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  that's always, that's been, um, a topic of discussion, even as driving up this
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  morning, we're still looking at, um, we have a wide variety of aged schools in
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  our system, schools built in the fifties, built in the sixties, all the
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  way up to, you know, to our most recent schools that are built. Some of our
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  older schools are able to handle some of this a little bit better even than
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  the newer built schools. So, um, the, the concerns we have is for exterior
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  pipes that, um, fun that, that provide water to the school. Those, those are a
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  challenge. So we're going to look at either turning some water off where we
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  can. Um, the only problem with that is, is you have to maintain, um, fire
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  sprinkler systems within your schools. And so not, that's a challenge in of
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  itself of trying to find that sweet spot of where we can turn water off and
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  where we can't turn water off. So we're going to be monitoring that as best as
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  we can. As long as we have power, we've looked at a lot of different things to
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  drain as much as we can from our, uh, from our exterior ball fields around
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  our campuses, drain those pipes and best we can get that taken care of
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  today. We're making a to do list right now for principals and assistant
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  principals to do by the time they live today. As far as things that are plugged
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  into the walls, we want to just have a total shutdown. The last thing we need
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  to do is to have a flood, still have power, have a pipe burst in the ceiling
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  and then that comes up and we have a spark and then we have a fire. So
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  there's a lot to do today. A lot of things to think about. A lot of things
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  we've been thinking about and discussing this morning to try to give
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  us the best chance to return to school as soon as possible. I know that our
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  custodial and maintenance crews are certainly staying busy, um, kind of
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  moving ceiling tiles at the end of the school day just to allow some of
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  that warm air to circulate. Uh, I guess we drip faucets, you know, some of
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  those different things that, you know, most anybody knows to do open cabinet
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  doors, try to let heat get into all those where you may have pipes. If the
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  temperatures drop though to where, you know, the National Weather Service is
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  saying five and 75 sunday night, monday morning, seven monday night,
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  Tuesday morning. Uh, even the most preventative measures that we have
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  cannot withhold or do not stand up to some of those temperatures. It's just
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  too cold. I remember in the eighties when, uh, when the Red River froze,
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  well, it was six degrees. Well, guess what? We're heading looking at that.
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  We're looking at that and that's not just wind chill. That's the actual
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  temperature that they're talking about. So let's talk a little bit about once
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  we start falling out and assuming that our schools do have power, will we
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  resume normal operations if power outages remain, I guess, throughout the
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  parish, particularly, um, you know, among our residences? Well, just
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  because the roads are clear doesn't mean that we're going to be able to
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  immediately open. So we have to do a thorough assessment of any type of, you
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  know, water damage, electrical issues. There's a lot of things that go into
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  something after an ice storm. Again, I cannot emphasize enough. This is
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  different from 2021. Um, some of our viewers may, I don't know if you
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  remember back to 1994, but this is the last time we've had a significant,
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  serious ice event and it was very difficult and hard on both your schools.
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  And, and that's 30, that's 30 plus years ago. And think how far we've come now
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  with a lot of the advantages that we have, uh, to, to know what's going to
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  happen so we can prepare. So this is, um, as, as they referenced yesterday,
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  this is, this could be a historical event. So we all have to take it very,
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  very seriously and prepare. One more question. And I know that people are
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  already asking this, they ask it every time. We have snow days, I guess you
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  could call the snow days built into the school calendar. How many days
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  could we actually miss before students have to make those up? We have, I
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  believe it's 2.79 days built into the calendar already. And you may say 0.7.
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  Well, the, the school, the school day is based off of minutes. And so a
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  school day that, um, that we would, and how we organize the school day is
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  strictly built off of that. And so there's so many minutes you have to
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  accumulate into a year. So we look at that and, uh, you know, that's not a
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  primary concern right now. We have some days there that, that, um, you know,
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  that we have built in, but there are other things that we can do to make
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  sure we recapture the minutes in case we go beyond that 2.79. So, um, you
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  know, that's, that's all part of the post storm things that we'll have to
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  take into account. And we can look at that in the back end, uh, in May when
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  we're not worried about ice storms. Where we would actually just add a few
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  minutes each day to, you know, the, the day, right? Right. Yeah. Yes, ma'am. I
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  tell you what, this is great insight and I'm sure that that helped answer a
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  lot of questions for our parents. Anything else that you want to be able
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  to expand on? We just, we just want to remind our parents and our community,
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  we will be sending out communication at four o'clock. Sonya does a great job
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  of doing this. Um, she'll have prepared statements that, that, that push
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  information about what to expect from those are schools. I was on the phone
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  this morning with the judge and, and, uh, by and large, a lot of our
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  community revolves around what our school system does. And in fact, he
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  said to me, he said, Jason, 80% of what we do is based off what those are
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  schools does. So we, we recognize the importance of schools being open and
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  getting kids in school. That, that is, that's our number one mission. But the
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  priority over the mission is the safety of our, of our students, our staff and
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  our community. And that's, that's how we go about making our decision. You
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  know, that's our pledge for you. We're going to communicate, communicate,
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  communicate, let you know what's going on. Hopefully there's no one that has
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  to ask a single question because at four o'clock they can expect those are
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  schools to release information that's, that's critical to their, to their, to
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  what's happening next. So the best way to get that information is to first of
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  all, download those are schools district app. If you have not already, it is your
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  official source of information for all things related to those are schools.
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  Just go to your app store. It's good for android as well as iPhones. Search for
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  those are schools, then select personalized notifications. When
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  prompted, you're going to select those are schools to ensure that you receive
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  district updates and then be sure to turn on your notifications so you don't
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  miss imported information that we are going to be sending out. And again, as
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  you mentioned, that next communication is going to come out at four p.m. Sunday.
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  I want to say we have an incredible staff that works extremely hard and
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  oftentimes they, our maintenance department, they'll, they'll go into to
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  situations that may not be in their best interest, but they'll do it for the
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  good of those are schools. But our team is outstanding and we're working
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  diligently to ensure that we can do all we all we can do to prepare for what's
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  coming. And then as quickly as it passes, we immediately begin to work to see
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  what all damage to assess the damage to correct the damage and then try to
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  expedite the process to where we can get our kids back in school. They do a
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  tremendous job because they're out and about in the elements, if you will,
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  trying to mitigate a lot of things. And yeah, kudos to them. We also want to
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  encourage you to be prepared as we all weather this winter storm together. Take
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  this opportunity to charge your phone, charge all of your devices to make sure
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  that you get emergency notifications as well as public service announcements. In
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  fact, if you have already not already signed up for Everbridge, which is the
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  Boja Parish police jury notification system, this is a really good time to do
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  that as well. Also have plenty of warm blankets handy just in case the
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  electricity goes out. Have plenty of water available to drink and also to be
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  able to force flush toilets if your pipes happen to burst at home. And
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  please, please stay off the roads. Don't travel if at all possible until we're
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  all given the all clear that it is safe to drive. Also, if you have a generator
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  at your home, please stop by today and get as much gasoline as you can just in
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  case the power goes out. I was so glad to hear the swept over already has 2000
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  land linemen and arborists that are on the ground in Boja Parish. You know, we
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  help out our partners in the south a lot during hurricane season, and it's so
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  good to see that they've already, they've already landed here in the
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  Shreveport Boja area ready to assist in the event that that we do have power
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  power problems. Your child's safety is is our ultimate goal, and that's what we
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  want to make sure that we communicate to our to our families and our
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  community. Um, that is our top priority. We encourage you to stay safe. We
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  appreciate your continued support. If you haven't done so at this time, now
• 15:02
  is a perfect time to really like and subscribe to our channel. You can find
• 15:07
  us on just about every podcast platform there is. We want to encourage you to
• 15:10
  be a part of what we're doing for events just like this special special
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  episodes where we're trying to communicate as much as we can what's
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  gonna happen around those schools. So thank you for tuning in and thank you
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  for watching. We hope that you will stay warm, stay safe, and we will see
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  you again at four p.m. on Sunday with communication from those your schools.
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  This has been a Bowser schools production. Join us next time when we
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  go on the record with Bowser schools.