Like many parents, Amber Johnston spent most of her morning looking out her window, checking her messages and checking the news, waiting for her kid’s school to close or even go on a delay. “It definitely wasn’t safe conditions out this morning. When I looked out the window I thought for sure there would be at least a two-hour delay but I was really surprised when there wasn’t,” said Johnston.
“I was surprised, I mean I thought they would at least get a two-hour delay,” said Andy Smith. He kept his kids home because of the weather. “We didn’t feel right about letting them go on the bus this morning. It just didn’t seem like a good idea, it didn’t seem safe. We just wanted to play it safe and take a snow day,” said Smith.
Johnston kept her daughter home after her bus was over an hour late. “My son’s bus came as scheduled, but my daughter came back knocking on the door about 45 minutes later. She was red as a beet, she was cold, so I told her to forget it, stay home. I was pretty upset we didn’t get any phone call, normally they’re really good about that,” said Johnston. “They should have definitely made a better call I think.”
Parents spent most of the morning complaining to school districts throughout York County by phone, Facebook, even Twitter.
Fox43 made calls to several school districts, Dallastown was the only one to respond.
Superintendent Dr. Ronald Dyer said the weather changed after he made the decision to open on time. He sent this statement, “I apologize for the situation this morning. I don’t want to cast blame, though. It was my decision, based on the discussions and information I received from our weather service between 4:30 a.m. and 5:37 a.m. Certainly, weather conditions change. But, when we’ve made changes to schedules once buses start rolling – for example, calling a delay or changing a delay to a cancellation after 6:00 a.m. – confusion results. Despite our best efforts, not everyone gets the updated message and we receive a lot of complaints for that, also. Again, I am so sorry about the situation this morning.”