How cold is too cold for students?
Students throughout the area had to brave a cold Tuesday morning, which had many parents asking what the policy is for students waiting for school to begin.
Like the rest of her classmates at Mountain Valley Elementary School in Ammon, Sarah Nelson had to wait outside until the bell rang at 8:25 a.m.
“It was cold,” said Sarah. “I’d rather go inside.”
John Pymm, the director of safe schools at Bonneville School District 93, said the district’s policy states students must wait outside prior to the start of school.
“However, if the temperature reaches zero, then we open the school earlier for the students,” said Pymm.
Pymm added that each principal can use their discretion, but when the temperature reaches zero students are allowed inside at the arrival of the first school bus or 15 minutes earlier than usual.
He said parents are responsible for dressing their kids warm and not dropping them off too early.
“For us to open the door to be a babysitting service for parents, who may have jobs and so-forth, that’s just not going to happen,” said Pymm.
Sarah’s mother, Tiana Nelson, is just one of the several parents who wonder if the district’s expectations are really practical. She also thought it was too cold for kids to be waiting outside Tuesday.
“Well, if you have to work or you have somewhere to be, definitely that’s a hard thing to do,” said Nelson. “Especially if everyone’s dropping them all off at the same time. The kids may not get in on time to the school.”
At rural Fairview Elementary, 2nd grade teacher Debbie Funke said things are a little different.
“It kind of goes teacher by teacher,” said Funke. “On a day like today when it was cold. We didn’t want to leave anybody out there so we brought them in.”
Funke said most students take the bus, but if they are dropped off by parents they won’t be left out in the cold.
“We’re very family oriented,” said Funke. “We just take care of problems like that.”
With the weather sure to get colder, Pymm reminds parents that if they think it is too cold for their child to go to school, they have the right to keep them home.
