Extreme Cold Causes Few Delays As Students Return From Break
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The first day back to school for many Minnesota kids is a cold one. Several school districts, including Anoka-Hennepin, Minneapolis and St. Paul started back up on Wednesday after a couple weeks of break and then two historically cold days.
Gov. Mark Dayton ordered all of Minnesota's public schools be closed Monday after extremely cold temperatures and dangerous wind chills took over the state. Dayton left it up to the individual school districts to decide on school Tuesday, and many stayed closed due to the extreme cold.
Wednesday morning, it was back to reality for students, it was a tough wait at school bus stops and there were some weather-related delays. In the Minnetonka School District it was a pretty standard morning, but some buses were delayed despite the district's best efforts to make up for this weather.
Officials said Minnetonka schools use First Student bus services, as do many metro districts. But three out of 70 buses were delayed Wednesday morning despite the bus drivers keeping the buses running throughout the weekend.
Other districts like Osseo and Anoka-Hennepin, the biggest district in state, also experienced a handful of delays. It wasn't as bad as the districts had anticipated, but in this blistering cold weather even an extra 10 minutes at the bus stop can be dangerous.
We talked with the Minnetonka schools about how they informed parents if their child's bus will be late.
"This morning we were calling individual families where their route was late if it was 10 minutes or more and then we were posting any late-running buses on Facebook," said Janet Swiecichowski with Minnetonka Schools.
Parents in the school district were alerted Tuesday that there may be delays as well due to weather.
A lot of school districts also encourage parents to check on Facebook and Twitter for updates. It's often now the most effective method, even more than phone calls. It's very different than 1996 or 1997, the last time Minnesota experienced the type of extreme cold that hit this week.
