Superintendent of Schools Surprises Parents With 10th Snow Day

Parents came to the special meeting of the Board of Education at tonight expecting to discuss their concerns about shortening February Vacation. The decision to abbreviate the school break was forced by all the snow days the district has had to take due to the unexpectedly heavy snowfalls already experienced this winter season.

What they were not prepared for was a statement made early in the meeting by Superintendent William D. Guzman, and subsequently confirmed by ringing text alerts on parents’ cell phones: Tolland schools will be having a tenth snow day on Friday.

The reason is similar to that of why several schools in the area took Thursday off when Tolland had a 90-minute delay: a need for time to remove snow from overly burdened roofs.

After consulting with a structural engineer, Guzman said that Tolland schools were “at or near capacity loads for weight of snow.” With more than 500,000 square feet of school roofs, including the abandoned Parker Elementary School and the building, which is 150 years old, there is the equivalent of 20 to 29 inches of snow on the roofs of school properties.

In anticipation of the snow that’s predicted on Saturday and Thursday, Guzman said, “we’re going to take Friday, Saturday and Sunday, if we need to, to reduce the levels of snow for the roofs to accept new levels of snow.”

Guzman said Town Manager Steven R. Werbner put in a request to the National Guard to enlist extra manpower for the clean up. During the meeting, Guzman said he had just received notification that some help from the Guard would be coming.

“My main concern is for the safety of the children,” Guzman, whose faced tough decisions when having to make a call to close schools, said. “If I’m going to err, I’m going to err on the side of caution.”

Cindy Davidson, who has two children in the school system, passed on a message from her daughter who attends the high school. “Please watch out around the skylights because there is a lot of snow up there,” she said. “They might leak into the school or come down.”

Emily Cusson, who missed Guzman’s announcement early in the meeting, asked why children could not still be in classrooms while the roofs were being cleared if snow levels weren’t exceeding the limit.

“The weight of all that manpower is a lot of extra weight,” Guzman said. A structural engineer will also be present to monitor conditions. With the weight of the workers on top of the already snow-burdened roofs, Guzman said he and the engineer did not feel it was safe to have anyone in the buildings while work is being done.

According to a message from Fire Chief John C. Littell, also public safety supervisor for the Town, approximately 100 Guardsmen will be arriving in the early hours on Friday to get to work.

Additional snow removal equipment will be needed, so residents who can lend shovels, snow blowers and more are appreciated. "Please drop them behind Tolland Fire Station 240, located at 3 Rhodes Road, near the Route 195 intersection, before 6 a.m.," said Littell.

Tomorrow, Tolland Patch will have further follow-up on the Board’s special meeting and the discussion on how the district plans to make up lost school days.