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School administrators are not meteorologists, and they don't pretend to be. By job title, they are forced to make decisions about school closures when Mother Nature comes calling with wintry mixes.
One school administrator admitted making those decisions is easily the worst part of the job. There is a rigorous process in place to help with the decision-making, but it still leads to many sleepless nights.
These officials are darned if they do and darned if they don't. If they open school and it snows, the lynch mob comes calling. The same mob turns out if they close or delay school and nothing becomes of it. It's a no-win situation.
How is it their fault? They are only going off the information, or meteorologists' misinformation, they are given. Sometimes, the forecasts change as the storm nears, increasing or decreasing the impact.
School administrators have been admonished by their peers at times because of the decisions they do or don't make. The most recent incident was because the official waited until the early morning hours to announce a district-wide school closing.
One administrator took the time to explain their process, for transparency's sake. It's not a matter of someone waking up and looking out the window. The process for canceling school can start two days in advance.
School administrators and district personnel hold virtual meetings that include PennDOT, county emergency management, school district personnel and other agencies to review the forecast. There are discussions about the expected weather. There are also discussions with other neighboring school administrators.
For some weather events, school administrators drive the roads before deciding.
Ice and freezing rain decisions are tricky. Administrators know that the possibility of either causes an immediate unsafe situation. They don't want to risk having anyone transported during that type of weather event.
They run between 8,000 to 11,000 miles daily transporting students, both publicly and privately. They can't afford to have even one accident and therefore the district errs on the side of caution.
Quick storms also can catch administrators off guard, so there's no opportunity to delay or have an early dismissal. Administrators say these are the most stressful situations as they wait to hear that all students are delivered home safely.
Instructional time is important but so is the safety of students, teachers and drivers.
Mifflin and Juniata counties are so large, the weather in one end of the county can be different from the other. It's filled with peaks and valleys that make transporting students to and from school difficult in inclement weather.
It's understandable for parents to need to know to make contingency plans for childcare, but there is only so much that school officials can do when battling the weather.
This isn't a game where they can call timeout or challenge the referee's call. When the wrong decision is made, school officials can look as silly in the eyes of parents. Meanwhile, the meteorologists shrug their shoulders and move on. Someone should lambast them for a change.
After all, the meteorologists, with all their fancy storm tracker radars, provided the misinformation.
While school administrators are decision-makers, they can't control the weather. It's also so easy for others to criticize and second guess when they don't have to sit in that chair.
Student safety is also certainly not a decision any administrator takes lightly. Like all other decisions they make through the school year, they have the students' well-being at heart. However, many of these decisions don't impact parents, who now must find last-minute childcare.
Instead of questioning the school administrators' decisions, we should appreciate the fact that at the decisive moment, they believed the decision they made was in the students' best interest.
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Greg Williams is a reporter and Sunday Night Editor for The Sentinel. A Mifflin County native, he has been writing for The Sentinel since 1991. His column, "Virtually Home," appears regularly.