On Monday, January 20, 2025, the @lockporths205 Instagram and Facebook accounts along with lths.org announced that the impending cold day would be in-person learning on Tuesday, January 21.
They typically use a standing temperature of -10 or a wind chill of -25 degrees to determine if a cold day is necessary. As far as weather goes, the high for that Tuesday was 1 degree with the low being -10 degrees and the windchill reaching a low of -17 degrees. The post informed students that all buses would operate safely despite the cold weather.
Additionally, they included how the decision was not entirely theirs, as they consulted with the nearby districts and feeder schools to align their decision for attendance on that chilly day. The district received a lot of backlash from students and parents alike on social media. Superintendent Dr. McBride was interviewed on the topic.
Do you think attendance would’ve increased if the e-learning approach had been taken and do you plan to implement any changes moving forward?
“In the past with e-learning, we have had low attendance rates. But some families are angry that we’re not open, and you can’t please everybody. Schools like Lincoln Way, Lemont, and Minooka, every school, whether it be an elementary, middle, or high school in DuPage County, was open. All of these schools experienced similar low attendance and similar anger as we did. It was much bigger than just our district.”
What surrounds the decision to call an e-learning day?
“The way my job works is I talk to our school board and feeder districts and pull them all together. We meet Homer 33c, District 92, and District 91 of Milne Grove and Kelvin Grove, all 7 of them. All of these schools felt strongly that they would be in session, and I understand, it’s hard to do e-learning with a second grader.”
He continued, “Looking at the guidelines from National Weather Services, it states it is unsafe to be outside when it is -10 degrees standing and -25 degrees with wind chill.” We weren’t forecast to hit dangerous temperatures as of 3:29 am 01/21. With windchill we only hit -17, so yes it is cold but it wasn’t that threshold.
McBride adds, “And lastly, each school addresses its situation of readiness. Our buses were ready. Our buildings were ready. We didn’t have a lot of staff that had to be absent due to their family situation. Our buildings were ready, warm, and safe.”
Dr. McBride also wanted to address his concern for the behavior of the community in response to the district’s decision, “One of the things I was concerned about was the level of language by the adults and students on social media. The community needs to conversate and reflect more on this topic because it needs to be rethought. I was surprised by the adult speech that in turn influenced students applying that too. It is just weather, so threats, swearing, and profanity over just a tough day to get to school is inappropriate.”
From another perspective, Dr. McBride felt strongly that school can be a safe environment for students, “People forget that school is a place where students get two meals and a warm place. It is a public institution and it is our goal to stay open when possible. In another perspective there are sports at night, games would not go on, and practices, clubs, and activities would have to be canceled. Students may miss out on these social events and don’t consider how important they can be to their fellow students.”
As a school district and community, we can be prepared for situations to occur like this one again. Any guidelines for severe weather can be found on our district website. Bundle up Lockport, we may have a long winter ahead of us!
