A two hour delay would habe worked just fine. They put children and bus drivers at risk and thatis very sad on their part. I just hope no one was hurt this morning. You all so drpped the ball again i am beginning to have no faith in our board of ed. I hope uou do better and you wated a snow day for us thanks for that too.

If I were still driving a bus.... I would have refused to work today... Even an experienced driver refuses to put the kids on their bus at risk... It was snowing in Sykesville at 6a... When in doubt, call a delay... If the weather continues to deteriorate, then you still have time to close the schools with out causing harm to the students or the drivers. Better safe than sorry...

The superintendent apologizes for an inconvenience. It is more than that it was putting every child and employee at risk. The superintendent and other decision makers have too large of salaries to make such a poor decision. The level of technology and access to weather services are all they to help and to use common sense. Utilizing a delayed start would have avoided all risks and most likely would have avoided a lost day.

If I had been back to work I would have called out today. The road conditions changed quickly so the call should have been made alot earlier. Thank God my childs bus didnt pick her up or I would have been one of the angry parents calling. Next time if there is even a dusting and its still coming down schools need to be delayed.

"ensure better communication with our County Roads", what about better communicating with their bus drivers!!!

"Parents were notified by email and phone announcements of the school closing decision at 7:15 a.m. Friday."

This is not true. I have yet to talk to anyone who found out before 7:30 about the closure.

When I took the dog out at 6:30 I was surprised they had not called for a delay, given the amount of snow on the ground and their absolute fear of bad weather in Maryland. (Hey, I'm from NY. This is laughable. You should see the weather in Syracuse and Rochester right now, and they didn't even flinch).

However, it's also pretty obvious that the Department of Transportation is clueless in this state. Last week they were spreading literal buckets of salt on the roads when it was 18 degrees outside. Last I checked, it is physically impossible for salt to work at that temperature. This morning they apparently were not on the roads at all.

Are the bus drivers trained in inclement weather driving? It would appear that a number of buses had issues this morning, but I wonder if a better trained driver (or chains on the tires) would have made a difference.

It is a parents responsibility to make important decisions for their children. It is not the responsibility of the public school system. You should be ashamed of yourself for bullying a school superintendent. Start behaving like adults and admit that you as parents screwed up by sending your children to school in such terrible conditions. I'm sick of people never taking responsibility for their own actions and always looking to blame.

I wondered where the salt trucks were in advance of this? It was predicted for the busy drive time. In my area the county response to almost every snow event this season has been tardy!

Agree with Ashley.....parents have the final say whether their child/children go to school. My son was sick today, so wasn't going regardless....and even if he wasn't sick I have more common sense apparently than those of you that placed your children on the bus. Come on. How would you had felt had your child been in a serious accident.?. The idiot part of the school system was sending the kids back home that were already safe at the school. Why didn't they wait the storm out before going back out while the roads were still bad.?? Pathetic both sides...parents and the school system. Apparently you can't teach common sense

To be honest, buses are a non-issue for me since I don't utilize bus transportation. The issue for me is my back-up care when school is closed. I have the most understanding employer in the universe when it comes to snow days, but there are times when I just HAVE to attend meetings. School was called at 7:30, and it takes me 45 minutes round-trip on a good day to navigate to my backup care center. The late hour of the cancellation sent me into a panic trying to find a solution for my 9 o'clock meeting.

I felt sorry for those parents who commute to Baltimore or DC, and had to turn around and come back for their kids. I hear of kids getting stranded at schools, I wonder if any were stranded when the buses brought them back home?

Anybody who lives in the area with half a brain knew at 6:00am that no child should have been on the road. Whats the big deal closing the school due to safety concerns?

Whether they called school off or not. Either parents would be upset that they did or didn't. Come on, it wasn't snowing in part of the county at 5:30 AM. Most bus drivers are already on the road by 6 after they have driven to pick up their buses. At least we have a system where we get a call and alerts. Years ago you had to get your info from the tv. Come on parents, quit complaining. The superintendent has nothing to apologize for. Complain to Mother nature for deciding to snow at the time it did.

The school system gets criticized all the time for closing schools at the sight of a snow flake, so I can sort of understand the system not wanting to cancel if thought the snow Friday morning was going to be a quick passing squall-type storm. However, streets in Westminster area were covered by 6:00 and truly don't understand why a 2 hour delay wasn't called. But what I really don't understand was why students were required to return home immediately after the call to close was made. That was putting the kids out on the road at the worst of the conditions. I know that at least one high school - the student parking lot was full of cars, parents had dropped other kids off at school, but the school was locked and students weren't allowed in.

I wonder what area of the county people are in when they say "the roads were bad" because there wasn't much snow in my area when schools were closed. There was snow, so I was watching for delays on tv, and if the roads were unsafe, I would have not put my child on the bus. My mother wouldn't let me ride the bus if the weather was bad, she knew how the roads were where we lived (they iced faster since we lived in a higher area), the school system did not, so she made the decision for my safety. I remember other parents doing the same when I was growing up, bringing in kids after the roads were plowed or cleared even if school opened on time. I have no problem making the same decision for my children.

At any rate, I suppose that was why the decision was hard, because it was only bad in certain parts of the county. I couldn't even see the point in a delay, it was not that bad.

At any rate, hopefully a better snow plan will come out of this snafu. Like someone else said, they would be people furious that schools were opened on time. Or that there was only a delay. Obviously there was a mistake made, which is how you learn to do things better. I give them the benefit of the doubt that they were trying to make the best decision. No point in being angry over something I can't control!

I agree that bad decisions were made friday. But, we have a very large issue here. Child safety. I'm not talking about being on a bus in bad weather either. On friday morning, my 7 year old child was already on the bus when schools were closed. Now, many bus drivers might have done the right thing, ours did not. My 7 year old child was left in the snow at his bus stop. We had already gone to work. A man on our street informed the bus driver he would "watch him until Dad gets back". This man followed my son to our house, watched him as he put in our code, and enter an empty house. My husband got the call and returned home, thankfully to a safe, albeit scared little boy. Thankfully, the man that watched over my son truly made sure he was OK. But, he could have been a murderer or a child predator. This man could have rushed my son the minute he entered our empty home and killed him, or done things I cannot even fathom. When telling me the story later my 7 year old told me "adults made bad choices today". I praised him for his calmness and ability to handle an emergency that clearly adults failed to do. I was even more horrified to find out there is NO POLICY that protect children in Carroll County. Any age child can get off a bus at any point without a recognized adult present. We hear daily about children falling victim on the news. That cold have been our story. I will not stop until the officials in Carroll County make a policy to protect our children. WAKE UP PARENTS!

Andrea you nailed it. The way I see it parents have custody and decisions to make prior to their child getting on a bus. If its snowing and they feel that it's too dangerous, obviously they have the right to choose to place their kid on that bus or not. As soon as the child steps on the bus our choices, decisions, etc are left with the school system.
On multiple levels they screwed up yesterday. A. Driving the children to school in bad weather. B. driving them back home from school in the same bad weather if not worse (when they could've just kept the kids at school supervised til the weather got better. And of course the worse part of it all C. Dropping kids off at home to empty houses.

It's illegal to leave a child under a 8 at home alone. So technically Carroll county schools not only screwed up in their decision making but made an unlawful decision.

Maryland schools rated #1 in the US for education. That's awesome! However, for common sense we're most likely in the bottom 5.

This is no better than the entire argument about people entering schools without checking in with the office (which my wife forgot to do several weeks ago and yet no one bothered to question her). Pathetic system and yet they email is asking how they would like us to see our kids disciplined. Am really loosing faith in our system.

Thanks Jweber. Rest assured, my griping will not end here in the patch. We are already preparing to Di battle with the transportation dept and county, and have been advised to call the department of child services in to call attention to the lack of security and protection our officials endorse. I will not stop my fight until there is reform and consequences. I urge all county parents to do the same. I have already made plans to remove my children from the bus permanently. This is the second time the transportation dept put my child in danger. It is a complete disgrace and beyond disgusting. I have already lost faith.

Wow...I must admit I have had my eyes opened a little bit. I must be the worst parent in the world, because it never in a million years occurred to me to keep my child home because of weather. Illness,yes; family emergencies, yes; but weather?

Maybe it's because I drive my child, I don't use buses.
Maybe it's because I grew up in a city that gets 100" of snow a year, and I had a 40 minute commute in that city, and schools NEVER closed there.
Maybe because "bad" roads to you are laughable to me.
Maybe it's because of the stories I've been told about being reported to CPS if your child misses too much school.

But whatever. It's done and over. I hope in the future they use the "open late and re-evaluate" option more freely than they have in the past.

Please keep me informed if I can help in any way. Our neighbors have already began removing their children from the schools and doing home schooling. Our son is only in his first year of school, so my wife and I are new to all of this, but quickly becoming disgusted with how things are being handled.

Robin.... Having grown up in Maryland and lived in Idaho, I can tell you, Marylanders do not see it enough to be good or even decent drivers in it. A lot of this could've been avoided with your statement "I hope in the future they use the "open late and re-evaluate" option more freely than they have in the past".
If social services or anyone is called on me and my wide because we made choices due to weather or sickness not to send our child to school on any given day, so be it. Would love to see that court trial.... They wouldn't have anything to stand on. Besides, excessive amounts of missed days need to occur before that happens. I really doubt it ever would. I could be wrong.

Does Guthrie have children? Seems like no one wants to take responsibility for being irresponsible! I bet children would have been marked "late," through no fault of their own...my son was going to be late...but my car got stuck in the driveway...so we declared a snow day before the "powers that be" did. Can we mark someone "stupid" for their inability to make a decision? A 2-hour delay is a no brainer; you can always re-evaluate.

Now that the event is passed and all the kids are safe at home, I would like to give some credit where it's due. To the bus drivers who were sent out on the early runs, and safely transported students to and from school in the snow, thank you for driving carefully. To the school staff who were at the schools where students got dropped off, thanks for handling an odd situation, and being there for the kids in the confusion. To the CCPS transportation staff, you're weighing many competing interests on days like this, and almost always make the best call for our kids. It's almost impossible to come up with contingency plans for EVERY conceivable situation. You now have a new situation to plan for, and I know you will figure out the best way to handle for next time. To the Superintendent, once the smoke had cleared, issuing the explanation/apology like you did was the right thing to do. The timing of this snowfall was definitely challenging, and it's and any decision you would have made would likely have drawn criticism. I trust you and your staff will have a well-conceived plan for the next event like this.

@ west...... Did you not read any of the previous post? Wow!! Funny thing, I watched an Aussie comedian last night that in short said the US and its way of "positive reinforcement" is breeding over paid confident stupid people. Sad, but I gotta agree with him. Thanks for contributing to that. Unreal.

In Baltimore County, the schools opened on time that day. Bad idea. My daughter had an accident with a few other vehicles due to icy conditions on the road in front of her son's school. Neither the police car nor salt truck could move on this street also. Her son had already been dropped off at school before the accident. My problem is how did the buses get up and down this icy road since that is their main route? At least Carroll County finally changed their mind. Batimore County just let the busses loose and everybody was on their own. I couldn't believe all the poor decisions made by the schools that morning,

Yeah, I read almost all it. Very repetitive but justifiably critical. Guthrie issued an explanation that made sense and a promise to plan for the next time. What more could you ask for? These people have a very difficult job and do it well all the time. If you want to hang your hat on social analysis from an Australian comedian then fine.

Well West, I know "what more I can ask for" a policy that protects children. Plain and simple.

That's the interesting thing here. Bus drivers leaving children unattended outside in a winter storm and allowing them to walk off with strangers. -- Legal In Maryland -- Leaving your small child home alone illegal. Guess what -- if God forbid something happened to your child when you thought he or she was at school and the above incident occurred - the law would hold YOU culpable for gross negligence. Board of Ed, bus driver all walk away free and clear. In reality the bus driver should be charged with something like reckless endangerment and even child abuse and fired.

and bus driver should receive at least a month in jail for this. what they did could have ended up very very bad.

I'm pretty tired of hearing about Maryland drivers and how they panic from snow vs. New York driver's. New York driver's are the worst driver's in the WORLD! I traveled for a living and the one place I dreaded was New York/ New Jersey area. A little skim coat of snow on the turnpike would cause a major catastrophe in the area and snarl traffic for hours. Don't let 'em fool ya'.

I'm sorry some folks got caught flat-footed, but it is the PARENT'S duty to have a back-up plan for your kids if school gets cancelled during the school day. Was this one a tough call? Yes. But God/Mother Nature doesn't care. Weather happens on their schedule, not that of the school system or our employers. It's not like they didn't tell people after they changed their mind. In addition to contact from the school system, I received several texts, e-mails and tweets from media outlets alerting us to the change in plans. If both parents work days, they HAVE to have a back-up plan for someone to meet the kids. Yes, I know that in Montgomery County the parents expect the school system to babysit the kids until a parent or guardian gets there (wonder what happens if a bus driver would let a kid go off with a non-custodial parent in that case?). And their taxes reflect their expectations of the government. If you haven't noticed, Carroll isn't like that. Even the last board of commissioners (considered big spenders by many in this county) would not have wanted to incur the extra expenses of having to make sure every kid was met in person by a parent at the bus stop (says a parent who never went to their kids bus stop unless crossing a street was involved).
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Also, apparently I should not be alive because based on some of the comments on here kids could have died when they were expected to go to school on Feb. 1. Back when I was kid, there had to be 3 or 4 inches of snow ON THE ROADS to keep us out of school. This was in the 60s and 70s (I'm 55 now). Even though I went to Catholic schools, we followed the lead of Baltimore County for snow days. Somehow, we managed to survive.
I'm not terribly conservative, but I really do think people have unrealistic expectations of what taxpayer funded agencies are expected to do. But my suggestion is, if you want a school system that will spend the money (and yes, it would cost money) to provide those kind of services, you either elect leaders who advocate such things or live in a county where they operate that way

Lol Ed.... I just had this convo with my mom, a few years older than yourself. She said the same thing. My argument to her was back then the population on the roads were less than today. Also, horse and buggies didn't slide that much lol
And wasn't it up hill both ways to and from school. Downhill seems to be what most people loose traction on lol
All sarcastic remarks with exception of my first point. I agree with a lot of what you said. The parents failed their own children, then the school system put icing on the cake with their poor choices. While someone earlier mentioned the bus driver going to jail, what about the parent placing the child on the bus? Except a little responsibility before you go looking for a payoff thru a lawsuit. #1 issue with today's society, no one accepts responsibility for their choices / decisions.... Own up to it. #2 everyone is entitled to a payout at the expense of someone else's stupidity that followed after their own stupidity. Lol
Man this country is rapidly doing itself in. I can only imagine what other countries are saying.... "Why waste the men and ammo? They're a train wreck already... We'll just watch'em like reality tv fall apart" lol

Jweber, thanks for the good humor in your comment. I would take issue with your first point, though. Even 40 years ago, there was much more traffic in Towson (where I lived), Dundalk, Essex and Catonsville then there is in even the busiest areas of Carroll County today. And no, it wasn't up hill both ways. That was back when MY dad went to school ;-)

Well played =) without shoes no doubt. Haha better traction... Shoes just get slippery =)