School closures hit families

The morning of Friday, Dec. 15, the road to Terrace Park School in Mountlake Terrace was strewn with pine branches and dead stoplights. The parking lot hosted just a few cars and the school was dark inside.

A parent drove into the lot tentatively and leaned out his window.

“Is school closed?” he asked.

School was indeed closed, for the fourth time in three weeks. This time, the Dec. 14 windstorm knocked out power. In November, it was snow and icy roads. And with winter officially just starting Thursday, Dec. 21, there could be more to come.

Closures impact some families more than others. Some scramble to find day care or stay home and lose much-needed pay. Others can enjoy – or endure – a day at home with the children without financial backlash.

“When it’s snowy and cold, you don’t want (children) by themselves – or with the power out,” said Madeline Herzog, who has a son at Oak Heights Elementary, a daughter at Alderwood Middle School and a daughter at Lynnwood High School.

Herzog’s husband can stay home with the children, while she goes to work. She has many friends in the same boat, with flexible schedules or spouses who can stay home.

Some of Herzog’s neighbors aren’t so lucky. Her daughter babysat during the November snow days for a neighboring parent who couldn’t take any more time off work .

Weather closures are a problem for families who struggle financially, said Pam Graham of the Family Support Center of South Snohomish County.

“A huge problem,” Graham said. “It’s not anything you can plan for. It means a day with no pay.”

The center, based in Lynnwood, works with low-income families in Edmonds, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Brier and Woodway.

Graham works with many parents who have jobs with no benefits, vacation or sick time. For them, missing work means losing a significant chunk of money.

The whole community is impacted by closures, Graham said. For example, half the center’s staff was gone that day because they had to stay home with their own children, she said.

There are academic impacts as well. The Dec. 15 school closure came on the last day before winter break.

Herzog’s daughter had a book report to turn in, and other teachers were expecting to get work from students to read over the break, she said.

Cindy Easterson, parents of two students at Edmonds-Woodway High School, said that in some ways the day off was nice because it let her children catch up on school work. She’s less impacted than parents with young children, she said, because hers are old enough to take care of themselves.

She’d rather see schools closed than take chances.

“I really appreciate the concern the school district has for its students and I believe they put safety first,” Easterson said. “I know some parents get upset when school is closed, but I am always appreciative when they are conscientious of the danger.”

For many parents, workplaces also shut down in bad weather.

“I went into work and there was no power,” Easterson said. “I work at an architecture firm and everything is electronic and we all stood around our desks with candles and said: ‘This isn’t gonna work.’”