Dedham Schools Looking At Delays Over Snow Days

DEDHAM, MA — Dedham students might have recently enjoyed three snow days in a row but the school district could use two-hour delays in the future.

Superintendent Michael Welch told the school committee Wednesday that the use of a delay would not have mattered with the most recent snow days, but said he’s gotten some inquiries about why the town can't use delays over full cancellations.

“I am not a fan of this traditionally because of the disruption to working parents, buses, and traffic patterns. I think it often causes more problems than solutions but I am open possibly pursuing this in the future,” Welch said.

Some school committee members saw the cancel or delay debate as a no-win scenario, with committee member Tom Ryan preferring cancellation.

“You’re damned if you do and you're damned if you don’t but I think the decisions you made were fine. Far and away there is a lot more pushback towards late start times than there is towards canceling school in my experience,” Ryan said.

Committee member Lisa Laprade said she received a number of phone calls in support of having a two-hour delay, but committee member Marianne Briggs had the opposite feeling.

“We have gone with late openings in the past and people were very angry about it. I would put the question out there if people would prefer a delayed opening. Maybe the opinion has changed,” Briggs said.

Due to the length of the storms, a delay was not possible, Welch said. Mechanical problems to snow removal equipment and exhaustion meant the Department of Public Works was unable to have the areas around the schools ready for Friday, and the facilities workers were simply exhausted Sunday after a 12-hour shift, making another 12 hours of work impossible, Welch said.

While lengthy, the Sunday-Monday storm was not the storm many expected, with Boston getting less than 4 inches of snow.

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