Letter about School Closings from 2 concerned parents
Dear Botetourt View Editor:
We’re concerned parents of a student in the Botetourt County school system. We have several issues with our county officials that are responsible for the school closings and delays. It seems to us and other parents that certain officials are determined to risk the safety and well being of our children in inclement weather like ice, snow, flooding etc. This past Wednesday and Thursday ( Jan.30-31) there were flood warnings and watches in this whole area which happened! It seems obvious that they won’t heed the warnings and watches posted by The National Weather Service. It’s not only this time but the week before the morning temps were around 10 to 15 degrees.
That’s awful cold to be putting our little ones out before 7:00am not counting the bus drivers, black ice,and forcing diesel engines to start. What’s an hour or so at least till daylight? Seems like all the decisions are based on the conditions of the southern end of the county. Their reckless decisions are going to end up causing in an accident.
The flooding last week was just about the last straw. We called the school board office to no avail got transferred to the Bus garage. The secretary told me that “We can’t close schools because one person was flooded,” well folks almost 4 inches of rain fell not only in Eagle Rock but between Troutville and Buchanan, Lithia to Nace. All had water in the road. I was also informed that Morris Gill, Transportation Director was not taking calls.
We’re tax payers. We pay his and the rest of their salaries. The buck passing needs to stop we could not get any answers at all. This whole thing in a nut shell is that this county goes way past Daleville, Troutville, Blue Ridge and Fincastle. Folks look at a Botetourt County map– it goes to the Catawba Valley across to Caldwell Mt. to Glen Wilton, Oriskany to Buchanan’s Grey Ledge to the Rockbridge Co. line to Arcadia and back again.
We, as concerned parents, want these practices stopped. Get your heads back on your shoulders, let people know in a timely fashion so everyone can make arrangements and keep our children, bus drivers, teachers and the folks in this county safe .
Sincerely,
Greg Reed
Ellen Parr
February 5, 2013 - 1:43 PM
While I agree with the flooding issues I don’t believe that 2 hours made any difference in the cold temps I think overall safety is on everyones mind and Mr. Gill not taking calls was probably because he had alot of things to worry about without hundreds of parents calling. If you were that worried you should have just went to get you’re kids yourself.
This picture is our road …we went no place for 24 hours!It was 4 feet deep late that evening. Two hours does make a difference….In daylight atleast you have a chance at seeing icey places across the road where the water runs across or comes up,
I think the issue is that the schools were open and there are a lot of kids in Botetourt that live close to creeks that flood If you pay attention to the picture you will see that the road is flooded and no car or truck is able to get through there. A lot of people live near creek areas and that needs to be considered when making a decision about the schools. Also, we live out near Catawba and in the winter our roads can be very different from the roads in Daleville. The roads back here are shaded on both sides from the trees and we get a lot of ice.These back roads and the smaller country roads do not get state maintenance as quickly as your main roads like the Daleville area. I am sure tat the point Mr. Reed is trying to get across is that he just wants all these areas to be considered and it is very hard for all of these smaller kids to be out that early. Elementary children in our area of the county board the bus before 7:00.
Being from Daleville, I would like to thank our friends in that direction. There have been many times we have gotten out and the roads and even the weather were fine here!