Rilling, Norwalk super talk snow, snow removal … snow … snow … snow

NORWALK, Conn. – Snow is on everyone’s mind – including Board of Education members, who say they are getting emails from parents about everything from the decisions to call off school to dangerously snow-clogged bus stops.

This was relayed Tuesday by BoE member Artie Kassimis, who began the discussion by asking interim Superintendent of Schools James Connelly how the decision is made to call off school. “Is it a flip of the coin or what?” he asked.

“There is a pretty organized, scientific method,” said Connelly, in his second official day on the job after two weeks of introductory activities. Deputy Superintendent Tony Daddona has jointly made the decisions with him during phone calls that begin at 4 a.m., and include conference calls with a forecasting service and other school districts.

“The second thing, and very, very important to me, is checking with the city officials, basically the Public Works Department, to see what the road conditions are number one, and number two, what they can do,” Connelly said. “… Sometimes they’ll say if you delay schools it will give us a change to treat the roads and make them very, very safe.”

Parking lots factor in, as clearing snow is complicated, he said.

DPW clears the parking lots, custodians shovel up to 25 feet from the building and “then Parks and Recreation takes over from there,” he said.

“So we want to make sure all of those things are coordinated, and quite frankly, the bottom line to me is safety,” Connelly said. “You try to get this decision out as early as you can. I don’t want to be forced into a decision until I have all the information and I feel that we are making a decision that is appropriate and is safe for our students and our staff. We try to get that done by 5 o’clock. At times – it doesn’t happen very often – make the decision the night before, if it’s so obvious a storm is going to hit. But normally it’s a lot of work collecting information, I’d say between 3:30 and 5 in the morning.”

Kassimis questioned having three different parties involved in clearing snow, but Connelly said it apparently has been working.

“In many districts, depending on the union contract, the custodians might be responsible for total cleaning of sidewalks,” Connelly said. “Normally for the lots, it’s either public works or, if he district has their own snow plows, or in many cases, in some of the smaller districts I have worked with, they have contracted with third-party people to do the plowing.”

BoE member Mike Barbis said parents are frustrated with 5 a.m. phone calls. Connelly mentioned SchoolMessenger and the possibility of texting.

Kassmis said parents are complaining about little children who are standing in the streets because their bus stop in smothered in snow. The children are too short to be seen behind snow banks, he said.

“It’s a very complex issue,” Mayor Harry Rilling said. “A lot of the bus stops are right around private sidewalks. I think we need to do a better job of coordinating that and perhaps looking at where those bus stops are. It’s not ever been an easy task because people are not always able to clear their sidewalks within the time frame.”

This is something Norwalk has been discussing – elderly residents who cannot shovel snow have been assisted by volunteers working with Norwalk Neighborhood Coordinator David Shockley. Rilling said he would sit down with Recs and Parks, DPW and Shockley.

“We should try to come up with some sort of a process where we can at least clean those areas by the bus stops because it is critically important and the kids are not standing in the roadway,” Rilling said. “I’ll take a look at that.”