Last-minute school closing angers Petaluma parents, students

Petaluma City school officials were among many school districts throughout the county on Thursday that drew fire from parents, teachers and staff for not deciding to cancel classes until early Thursday morning, despite area-wide warnings of a potentially record-setting storm bearing down on the region.

In email and phone alerts delivered to family and faculty around midday on Thursday Superintendent Steve Bolman apologized for canceling school at the last minute and said that many factors, including that storm didn’t begin to wreak havoc locally until early Thursday morning, went into his decision.

“I take full responsibility of course and the timing was difficult for our students and staff, which I regret,” he said, adding it’s rare for his district to close school at all. “In my 23 years here, I can only think of one other rain closure. We plan for and expect school to be open.”

But students and parents, many of whom made the trek to school through ugly conditions this morning before finding out that classes were canceled, contacted district officials and took to social media Thursday to complain about the timing of the decision. After several days filled with warnings of the impending big storm, which experts predicted could be the worst to hit Sonoma County in years, many said they were angered that canceling school was even in question.

“When I looked on the school’s website the night before, there was a memo that said by 5:30 a.m. the next morning, we would be informed if our school was closed,” said Casa Grande High School senior Jordan Mendez, who was one of the students who made her way to school Thursday morning. “With no call and no news of canceled school, I went to my zero period class. I was 15 minutes late due to stalls from the rain and as soon as I walked into class, there was an announcement saying that school was canceled. The district did not handle this situation professionally at all.”

Mendez said her sister, who attends Kenilworth, didn’t know classes were canceled there until Jordan called to tell her.

Ken Quinto, a parent of two sons and former city council candidate, said he received an automated call from the district apologizing for the 11th-hour cancellation around 2 p.m. on Thursday. Like many people, though, he wondered why the district didn’t heed the dire storm warnings.

“I get the fallout if they canceled school and everything was fine, but what happened this morning was poorly managed,” he said. “High schoolers were out in the dark in very bad conditions to get to their zero period, experiencing flooded streets and treacherous conditions in the dark.”

In his email to families and faculty, Bolman said he consulted on Wednesday with other school districts, many of which also ended up only announcing closures early Thursday. In addition, he said he monitored weather reports over the course of the night and even personally drove down to the district office to make certain schools throughout the city had power and were not experiencing any flooding.

By 3:30 a.m., he said, everything looked okay and, after making a last round of checks around 5 a.m., issued a “schools open” at 5:29 a.m. But less than an hour later, after learning the power was out at the charter school in Penngrove, followed by flash flood warnings by the National Weather Service, Bolman reversed his decision.

Unfortunately, due to what he termed a “technical issue,” the automated call alerting parents to the cancellation, didn’t go out until 8:05 a.m. By that time, many students were already out in bad weather heading for school.

“It’s saddening to see and hear how our district handled this situation. I would have to say it’s rather embarrassing as well,” said Casa senior Becca Morgan, who added she wasn’t notified about the closures until a few minutes before her first class of the day was to begin. “Several students were left at school waiting in hopes to receive a ride home, and that is not okay. That is this district’s fault for not informing us beforehand, and allowing people to travel from what could be long distances, in conditions that are said not to be safe.”

Bolman, who announced late Thursday that the district would keep the schools closed on Friday, might have still not canceled classes if it weren’t for the power outage in Penngrove and the National Weather Service warnings.

“If you look at the projections for this storm, it wasn’t as bad as what many were expecting,” he said. “Even if the power goes out in the middle of the day at one of our schools, we won’t send students home unless it’s too cold. I had calls today from people who complained that we were closing school over ‘a little rain.’”

(Contact Elizabeth M. Cosin at elizabeth.cosin@arguscourier.com)