rosemary i love youuu so much

This is absolutely stupid. she's more focused on making the schools look good instead of safety

no no no nO NO NO NO

Rosemarie you are genius in this choice. -said no one ever

I have had to delete several comments due to profanity. That is a violation of the TOS and your account could be suspended.

I so respect the superintendent but I completely disagree with this decision. Driving to do only necessary errands today, I saw so many areas where kids would be vulnerable at bus stops, etc. I truly believe it would be best to wait an additional day before putting so many on the roads.

I wonder where Ms. Kraeger lives? Obviously, it's not in Middletown. Green End Avenue is still covered with snow and is certainly not wide enough for 2-way traffic east of Paradise Avenue. Indian Avenue, Hanging Rock Road and many other main bus routes are not yet fully cleared either. I think it should be a requirement that our School Superintendent be a resident of the community. A decision like this is irresponsible, especially on a night when most communities in the state have cancelled.

I feel as though this decision was made without a complete inspection throughout the town of Middletown. Most sidewalks in Middletown have not even been touched since Friday's snowfall. Students have no place to wait for the busses and that in itself is a safety hazard. As Rosemarie may know many educators are not residents of Middletown and will have to commute to work on rather dangerous roads. 30 out of 32 public school districts in Rhode Island have closed or delayed for Monday, February 11, why does Middletown have to be different.

No need to be crass folks. We all have a right to express our opinions but only with the utmost respect and civility! I'd assume most of us are Middletown parents. Surely using vulgarity to express disagreement memorialized on the internet is not the example we want to set for the kids we have!

ridiculous my daughter is special needs hasn't slept right all weekend due to power outage no hear showering in an armory she needs a day to get back into her routine.. Besides our parking lot is not plowed well enough for her bus to pull in and turn around.. Not safe to walk out in either. Every town surrounding us except Portsmouth is cancelled tomorrow.. Why??? Common sense!

If it is a possibility this decision should get a second thought.

Thanks so much for your feedback. I do appreciate it. Opening and/or closing schools is always a sensitive, controversial issue. But it is always driven by the facts and a priority that our children and staff will be safe. I participated in a conference call this afternoon with all Superintendents throughout the State, Rhode Island Management Agency, National Grid, the RI Department of Education and Department of Transportation. Many districts had schools without power and roofs that were compromised; many districts had roads unplowed and many districts did not have their schools' parking lots cleared. Later this afternoon and evening, I conferenced with our Town Administrator and our Facilities Director, who were briefed by the police chief, fire chief and the department of public works. All our schools have power, most roads were plowed at least once and all our parking lots were cleared. Roads were going to be plowed throughout the night. The bus company assured us the they were able to navigate the roads. With these facts at hand, I determined to open schools tomorrow.
We have received clearance that roads are cleared and safe. Buses will need to drive slowly. Caution at bus stops is important. Parents always have the choice to keep their children home or drive their children to school. We will be lenient on tardy and absences, respecting parent choice. All the information I have at this point indicates that schools are ready to open.

As many feel the roads are safe we also have to think about the inexperience of these children that are driving to school. Some don't have the opertunity to get a ride to school. Also some roads were only plowed once in the middle of the storm. 24 hours would save the roads, and the troubles of families and students and most likely would not effect the school curriculum. Hopefully this decision will be reconsidered by the morning. A students life is more important then one day of education.

So......tomorrow morning when my 8 year old son is waiting for the bus IN THE STREET......along with hundreds of other kids at their bus stops which are also IN THE STREET, yup......sounds perfectly safe to me!

Wow. Apparently, I attend a school where people are concerned more about attendance than the safety of the children attending the school. I mean, are we hoping for an accident here?

I respect the superintendent but I've lost patience! Why are we waiting for an accident? No school! The superintendent clearly doesn't care about the safety of our children. I will WAIT for the call all night and morning if I have to. School should be CANCELLED!

By the lenience placed on attendance, not a great populous will be attending school; thus the apparent 'danger' placed upon students will be in vain as classes simply fill time until there rooms have enough people to teach a worthwhile lesson

Ms. Kraeger,
Did you personally inspect the roads? Shifting potential blame to the group who attended the conference call you reference is unacceptable. We entrust YOU, not town administrators or facilities directors, with the welfare of our children.

Also, as one held responsible for the education of our children, you should be ashamed of the grammatical errors in your post.
1. "Later this afternoon and evening"
2. "Roads were going to be plowed throughout the night."
3. "We will be lenient on tardy and absences"

What school you went?

No point would be served by dwelling on the many flaws in the Superintendent's reaasoning. Her defensive posting was disappointing to read, to say the least. Suffice it to say that she is out of touch with the existing conditions throughout Town. After the chaos that will almost certainly result tomorrow, the Superintendet should have ample opportuniy to re-defend her illogical position. The bottom line is that in making these decisions, you err on the side of caution, just as virtually every other municpality has in this instance. You don't just give it lip service. As a parent of schoolchildren, I'm offended by the suggestion that parents should be left to decide whether it's safe to allow their children to ride the bus.

It is what it is. Just gotta wait and see the results.

Not sending my daughter

Middletown is doesn't want trash cans on the curb ... but it's ok for the kids?!

Ms. Kraeger has apparently relied solely upon the observations and opinions of others. Could the reason be that she's not here presently? Also, jeers to Mr. Brown if he truly gave the opinion attributed to him by Ms. Kraeger. A lapse in judgment, to be sure, by two otherwise able public servants. Very dissapointing. Schadenfreude will abound tomorrow.

(Different Joe) if we look at the weather forecast, you'll see that we might be getting another storm later on in the week. A precedent has to be set before something serious happens to our children.

Overall, the road and driving conditions tommorrow will be worse than what was anticipated in deciding (rightfully) to close the schools on Friday. The more I think about it, the more senseless this decision seems. I drove my children's bus routes at 5:30 this evening. even the more "major" roads such as Green End Ave. and Turner Rd. were in questionable condition. Reservoir Rd. was very poor. It's 25 degrees out now, and the melting snow of several hours ago has begun to freeze over. The rain tomorrow will only make things worse. There is no way that any busses should be allowed to transport children tomorrow morning. If there's an accident, God forbid, those in charge should be held accountable.

I still have great concerns for the students standing at the bus stops. They have no place to stand, and not even a pathway to get there. My street, Maple Ave, is still nearly impassable. Also, what about all these tree limbs overhead, weighted down with heavy wet snow?

Bottom line is it is NOT safe for my 9year old daughter to wait in the middle of a snow filled street to wait for a bus. The streets are NOT properly plowed especially on these side streets where our children WILL be! two vehicles cannot pass let alone a darn bus!!!
Looks like Middletown and the school department is waiting for a big fat lawsuit!!!
Stupid stupid stupid

I am also baffled at the decision, especially considering past cancellations due to much less hazardous conditions (wasn't there an 'excessive wind' day or something?). Out here in the Wapping Road area, these kids will have a 5-10 minute walk (or more) on a road flanked by 6' high & 8' deep snow banks. Needless to say, this doesn't leave much 'street' left for vehicles, never mind people. There are far too many inexperienced, rushed, and/or distracted drivers for anyone to be walking on a snow-covered, slippery road with no way to avoid them. Driving our kids isn't even an option for many, as cars & driveways are also buried under drifts. If "The safety of our children is top priority", (a statement always added to the recorded messages we get from school) then my kids will be staying home & off the street where they will be safe. I truly feel sorry for the bus drivers...they have a tough job ahead of them in the morning.

5:45 Just got the call. "NO SCHOOL based on road conditions"

Thank you Thank you Thank you Mrs. Kraeger for your decision to cancel school today!! And especially for keeping all the Middletown children safe!!!!

Two thumbs up. Now back to bed!

Guess the Superintendent does use data to make decisions and keep kids safe. Great job Rosemary. Folks you need to trust her. She is an experienced educator.

Good decision Superintendent. You know your craft..

I got the feeling that not everyone was thrilled with this decision, but I'd really like to thank all of you who helped to make it happen. (I'm extremely happy that my kids will not be missing any classes!)

Good decision. Don't let the small town folks get to you. You always make your decision in the best interest of our children.

She used the current facts not the influence of the folks on this site. Do you really think your are that important!!

She canceled school. I got a phone call this morning

just curious .. Will tomorrow be any different from today out there?? Will we be fighting for our kids safety again in 24 hours?? I think the decision for keeping our kids out of harms way should be clearly obvious... We as their parents know what's best! why is it an argument with the one person that gets a substantial paycheck to make the right call regarding a major safety issue here, but doesn't!

Why wait so long? The alarm clocks went off at 6:15, as usual. At 6:40 we get the call with a recorded message saying that school is cancelled because of the road conditions. The right decision, but much too late. For families with both dpouses working, it's tough to make day care arrangements at the very last minute. What was obvious earlier this morning should have been obvious yesterday afternoon. If you want to open the schools, spend the funds allocated in the budget for snow removal and make the roads safer. Mother nature will be helping with the effort today, but I don't think you can rely on natural melting alone.

Why wait so long? The alarm clocks went off at 6:15, as usual. At 6:40 we get the call with a recorded message saying that school is cancelled because of the road conditions. The right decision, but much too late. For families with both dpouses working, it's tough to make day care arrangements at the very last minute. What was obvious earlier this morning should have been obvious yesterday afternoon. If you want to open the schools, spend the funds allocated in the budget for snow removal and make the roads safer. Mother nature will be helping with the effort today, but I don't think you can rely on natural melting alone.

Maybe we just save money cancel the buses and have parents drive everyday. It would help the taxpayers. Then all parents can make the decision for about their kids attending school or not.

Not a bad idea Mary T. Maybe we should charge parents for bus service and they can make all the decisions.

This is the biggest collection of idiot (as in IQ < 60) opinions i've ever seen. The superintendent laid out her process and rationale in a methodical explication, clearly stated the sources of her data, and emphasized that this was an OPTIONAL choice for parents to send their kids to school, something Im guessing would be vital to the working parent that cant afford to stay home with their child or pay for their supervision all week long while we wait for the snowbanks that serve as, you would think from the violent iopposition, kid-killing machines to melt and the planets to allign so that there is zero chance of any precious mediocre child being hurt or disappointed ever again.
But what if lightning strikes a tree and it falls in front of a bus and the bus slams on its brakes and a kid breaks his/her finger? What if a kid gets sun cancer waiting outside on a sunny day? If your kids are twice as smart as you they should most likely still be stuffed in a sack and tossed in the ocean to drown. Fortunately the morons tend to weed themselves out on their own so all we need to do is stop idiot-proofing our world and they'll all start dying off and we can recalibrate an IQ score of 120 to 100.

The issue isn't the appropriateness of school busing, the associated costs, and the allocation of those costs. Go find a forum on public spending if that's what you'd like to argue about. This is a public safety issue, plain and simple. Whether you like it or not, a great number of public school students, if not a majority, commute by bus. As long as that's the case, the cities and towns must ensure that the transportation is carried out safely in every respect. Anyone who disagrees with that premise is truly a fool.

I drove around Town for 1/2 hour or so this morning on my way to work, and many streets in Town remain in spotty condition. Some appear as if they haven't been plowed since Friday night or early Saturday. As I look out my office window in Newport right now, there are scores of people walking in the middle of roads among automobile traffic because few sidewalks have been shoveled and the sides of the streets are flooding. If schools were open this morning, it would have been chaos. I would have loved for the schools to be open today, and I hope they're open tomorrow, but they shouldn't open until it's safe. If you want the schools open, plow the roads and remove some snow near the bus stops. If it takes another 2 days because of lack of manpower or budget constraints, so be it.

Going forward, let's endeavor to make the right decision(s), and further endeavor to make them in a timely manner.

Thanks for proving my point, Joe, and demonstrating with an example of hypocrisy the metaphor of glass houses/throwing stones, exhibiting with irony (i hope) all that phrase is meant to express: some need to be forcefully shown the light. Speaking of scathing irony, I also love the "Lincoln quote," an apocryphal, at best, attribution since the statement (actually a bastardization of a biblical proverb) isn't attached to Lincoln for the first time until 1931. I may have to spell out, based (res ipsa loquitor) on your functioning solely upon assumed a priori knowledge that's hindered by a cerebral stenosis, that Lincoln wasnt alive then. Ipso facto, er, not even close. Thanks for the chuckles dolt!

Then again, I didnt drive around town for 30 minutes or look out a window like a bereted guardian angel, so naturally I havent a clue.

Keep it civil. Feel free to discuss the issue, but refrain from slandering other readers please.

Slander implies something that is untrue.

Wow, this turned ugly.

As a new member to this community, I find this discussion very disturbing. If those that post these comments have children in Middletown Schools, no wonder why there is so much bullying in the schools. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. You are an embarrassment to the community...the personal attacks are uncalled for...you have no respect for our community leaders. I am really not use to these behaviors. Our teachers have their hands full with your offspring!

thank rosemary i think she needs to be replaced the whole state canceled for monday she said there will be school then calls the whole town at 545 in the morning to cancel do u need a masters degree to figure that one out

More snow on the way.....lets get the superintendent to call off school now....don't you think? That's a brilliant idea for all of you to suggest.

It is called Monday Morning Quarterbacking Easy, except it rapidly became clear that many of the posters where never quarterbacks, nor were they were never in a decision making position and they never made a mistake. Many did not know that the ultimate decision was up to them...they wanted someone else to decide for them and when that was done they complained about it and when it changed they were even then still bitchin. Reminds me of my Army days when we used to say that if the troops were still bitching then everything must be alright.