Schools Remain Closed Tomorrow
Dear students, staff, and families,
To begin, we owe an enormous debt to our maintenance and custodial teams. They braved dangerous conditions to assess our buildings yesterday and today. This weather – especially today’s ice – has stressed our unoccupied buildings, and our maintenance staff are thoroughly reviewing each building to ensure it is safe. Our transportation team, too, has been out on these dangerous roads to make firsthand judgments about whether roads are passable and safe for our buses.
Our heartfelt thanks to these critical public servants.
Thanks to their hard work, we believe that most of our buildings are ready to open. We know that eleven schools still need full assessments, and another three are unable to open at this time. However, as pipes thaw out, boilers fire up, and snow and ice melt from trees and buildings, new problems may arise.
Roads, too, remain highly dangerous for our buses and staff, leading the Portland Bureau of Transportation to extend its travel advisory. Temperatures have not risen as much as the National Weather Service initially projected, and ground temperatures remain too low to sufficiently melt ice.
Given these circumstances, we’ve made the decision to close schools again tomorrow, January 18.
As eager as we are to reopen schools, we will not make a decision that puts our community in danger. While you’re used to school starting at 8:00 am or later, our district begins coming to life at 4:00 am with maintenance teams, nutrition workers, and bus drivers in motion. Educators, support staff, and school leaders aren’t far behind. Many families rely on buses for various reasons – work schedules, access to cars, or mobility issues to name just three – so if our buses cannot safely transport students, our schools cannot operate.
Please know we share your disappointment about these persistent conditions, and that we will reopen our schools as soon as it is safe to do so.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jon Franco
Chief of Schools
