Education

Records Show How One School District Handled Last Big Portland Storm

By Rob Manning (OPB)
Portland, Oregon Jan. 6, 2017 11:59 p.m.
Children in Northeast Portland spend the snow day on Dec. 15, 2016, sledding past Sabin K-8 school.

Children in Northeast Portland spend the snow day on Dec. 15, 2016, sledding past Sabin K-8 school.

Rob Manning / OPB

Another big winter storm is due to arrive in the Portland metro area Saturday.

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School administrators are likely breathing sighs of relief that it didn't hit during the week, judging by the havoc the December storms wreaked across the Portland region. Records received by OPB show how one district made decisions as snow and freezing rain crippled transportation in the region last month.

When snow hit the Willamette Valley on Dec. 14, cars and school buses were frozen in traffic. Some Portland students didn’t get home until midnight.

Public records from the North Clackamas district show the problems started shortly after school let out.

Related: Snow Strands Hundreds Of Oregon Students In Schools, On Buses

OPB has also contacted the Beaverton School District and Portland Public Schools for records related to how officials responded to the snowstorms. Officials are working to provide the records, but they haven't been released to date.

In Clackamas, a high school student was reported missing in the afternoon, but was later found at an after-school activity. There were at least two reports of cars crashing into buses, one of them videotaped by an area resident.

Emails show school officials working with the sheriff at almost 8 p.m., to get chains on a bus carrying 16 middle schoolers.

"We need to carefully coordinate and communicate efforts so as not to duplicate or miss a bus," Assistant Superintendent Ron Stewart emailed to Superintendent Matt Utterback. "Just north of sunnyside 152nd uphill 16 HVMS [Happy Valley Middle School] students. Our shop truck is in route to chain the bus. This is all we can get to report in."

Utterback responded, "Sheriff says he is on the way."

Almost three hours later, NCSD officials were still working at schools and offices, because some kids hadn't gotten home yet. An email at 10:38 p.m. said there were still two middle school students waiting for their parents to pick them up, at two different schools.

"We have confirmed that their rides are on the way," Utterback emailed to district staff. "We have four small buses that are still working to get students home and that should happen shortly. Roads have cleared of traffic and we are able to get our chained up small buses through most areas. Local law enforcement has been a huge help getting students home in challenging areas."

Utterback went on to thank staff for staying late and preparing food, and credited bus drivers with driving carefully late into the night.

Emails show Utterback sent his last email at 11:28 that night saying he and a co-worker were leaving.

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"[Another staffer] and I are going to follow each other home," Utterback wrote to another district official. "We'll be leaving the district office shortly. One of us has studs, the other chains. We should be good."

The next morning, Utterback reflected in an email that Wednesday night felt like enduring a "traumatic event."

Some applauded how the district responded.

"I wish to say a special thank you to the bus drivers," emailed David Hedges to the superintendent. "My grandson is a student at Rowe and was about 2 hours later than normal getting home. But he was transported home safely and given all the circumstances in a reasonable amount of time."

Other words of appreciation came in from staff and other parents.

Criticism went in multiple directions, too.

Parents questioned the district not closing early on the day kids got stuck at school.

Related: In Portland And Vancouver, A Tale Of 2 Storms

"Your secretary said it was a 'tough call' and 'came upon us quickly'," wrote parents of a child in middle school at almost 6 p.m. Wednesday, after learning their child had just boarded a bus for home. "I certainly hope this is not your response as well as that is completely false. This snow warning was all known ahead of time..."

Emails from the previous week, when North Clackamas closed schools before snow hit the area suggest a different approach under those weather circumstances.

"It is atypical for the district to make a weather closure decision in anticipation of an event," reads the Dec. 8 message from Utterback. "However, the timing of this storm’s arrival and the relative certainty of forecasts are exceptional circumstances."

At least one NCSD school staffer questioned a decision on another morning to cancel evening activities — rather than to wait and see.

"Seriously? Why are doing this so soon?" wrote Tory McVay to the 8:30 a.m., Dec. 9 announcement to cancel evening activities.

Utterback sent a district-wide message to families on Thursday, Dec. 15, attempting to explain and apologize for how the district responded to the weather conditions Dec. 14, when kids got home hours late.

"The snow accumulated much more quickly and roads and traffic became more challenging than anticipated by most school districts and agencies in the area," Utterback said, though some have said the weather forecast was clear and transportation authorities were giving warnings.

Some members of Utterback's staff sympathized that sending children home early or making other modifications to dismissal is very difficult in a school district of 30 schools and 12,000 students.

"There's a heckuva lot more to all of this than just predicting snowfalls and calling off school!" wrote Aeylin Summers, NCSD coordinator for alternative education.

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