The following was posted on the Harford County Public Schools website Tuesday, February 16 at 4:25 p.m.
SCHOOLS WILL OPEN TWO-HOURS LATE FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE WEEK (Wednesday, Feb. 17 through Friday, Feb. 19)
Following the two largest blizzards on record in decades, Harford County is fairing well but still has a long way to go in order to return to complete normalcy. Due to the unusual nature of these extreme weather events, it looks as though conditions will not be perfect for quite some time. However, we need to get our students back in school safely. In order to reduce any risk to our students, we ask for your assistance and patience.
All Harford County Public Schools will open two-hours late for the remainder of the week (2-17 through 2-19). The Alternative Education Program will open at its regularly scheduled time on Wednesday (2-17-10) and will be delayed two-hours on Thursday (2/18) and Friday (2/19).
Working with County agencies, we are making every accommodation to ensure safe travel to and from school for both walkers and bus riders. As schools reopen tomorrow:
Harford County Public Schools will make the following accommodations:
1. School will open two-hours late for the remainder of the week to ensure adequate time for students to navigate to their stops and to allow buses to transport students safely during daylight hours.
2. Those who feel that their bus stop is not safe may take their child to the entrance of their community or to the closest stop that intersects with a county road.
3. Additional buses, normally used as activity buses, will be deployed to ensure that all students have been picked up safely.
4. Our transportation crews continue to drive the county roads reporting trouble spots to assist the Department of Public Works in the snow removal process.
5. We will work with the County on alerting motorists to exercise caution as students are heading back to school.
6. In addition, no decisions have been made as of yet regarding the reconciliation of the calendar due to missed school days. Information will be forthcoming as soon as a decision has been made.
We ask that you take the following precautions:
1. Exercise extreme caution when walking on roads or standing at bus stops. Please allow extra time to walk your child to his or her bus stop or to school.
2. Please dress your child appropriately for standing at bus stops or walking to school. Pick-up times may vary as it is more difficult to maneuver through neighborhoods. Bus drivers will be using extreme caution regarding operating speeds, which may also alter pick-up and drop-off times.
3. Parents are encouraged to escort students to bus stops or walk children to school, when possible. In addition, any supervision that adults could provide at bus stops while children wait would be appreciated.
4. Please assist us by clearing sidewalks and walkways for children to travel on throughout your neighborhoods.
5. Please talk with your children about the above safety precautions.
Working together, we can get our children back to school safely. We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate through the aftermath of these historic storms.
I was told, that it a law, that if you live in a neighborhood with sidewalks, it is the homeowners responsibity to have the sidewalk cleared? Does anyone know if that is true or not???
It is the responsibility of any property owner, home or buisness, to have any and all sidewalks cleared. Part of the problem is some bus stops are at corners without sidewalks or the cleared sidewalk is behind 10 feet of snow!
Thanks, I was just wondering.I have ignorant neighbors who while shoveling their driveway, piled the snow on the sidewalks. At least it isnt a bus stop but it is the sidewalk on the way to the bus stop. Just stupidity I guess!
Well, there’s also the problem of snow plows and front end loaders dumping the snow on sidewalks…I’ve seen plenty of neighborhoods with 4 ft pile of snow and ice on the sidewalks…they aren’t going to be cleared anytime soon.
It is the property owner’s responsibility (or tenant if it’s a rental, I think) to clear the sidewalks. The county certainly isn’t going to come around and clear them. Neighborhoods with HOA might get cleared by the HOA, but I doubt it…a lot of them could barely manage to half-ass plow to streets.
You need to remember the county hijacked private contractors which is who the HOA uses to clear their areas. That said it is rude to not clear your sidewalk and dump snow on the sidewalk but remember we are aall running out of space with hving had 3 feet plus of it! At the same time I put salt out daily and get a fresh sheet of ice in the AM on my sidewalk.
I wasn’t meaning that as a criticism of people who haven’t cleared their sidewalks because of snow being dumped/pushed onto them by snow plows. No one on my street have touched their sidewalks since the first blizzard and I was the only one bothered to go out and shovel out a storm drain so the melting snow has someplace to drain to (I would shovel out more drains except I don’t have any idea where they are and I’m not shoveling out all the curbs along my street.) I haven’t touched my sidewalk yet and probably won’t for a few more days at least.
I know the county used private contractors to help clear the main roads, but that fact is most HOA’s are long since out of money for snow removal and private contractors aren’t going to do that for free. In my old neighborhood we had an HOA and it seemed like half the neighborhood didn’t pay their dues regularly so they would threaten to jack up everyone else’s rates (which just meant that more people would decide not to pay.) That’s the main reason why when we moved we refused to consider any neighborhood that had an HOA…that and I didn’t want to get hassled by them for a storm door on my house that wasn’t “approved” and that was there when we bought the house or something else equally stupid (which happened at our old house when we went to sell.)
My entire neighborhood dutifully shoveled and snow blowed our sidewalks. I came home today to find that our roads our now widened to two lanes (yay!) but all that extra snow (6+ feet) is now piled on those once cleared sidewalks. While I appreciate the effort made to widen our road, it’s a shame that the kids in my neighborhood will no longer have the safety of the sidewalks as they walk to their bus stops.
I understand. Our HOA negotited a flat rate contract which means the contractor gets paid when we have no snow but works for the same rte when we have a boat load like this.