N.J. school districts delay openings due to polar vortex

Due to the extreme cold weather and strong wind conditions, the Beach Haven and Long Beach Island schools, as well as mainland school districts from Little Egg Harbor to Ocean Township, had a two-hour delayed opening on Tuesday, Jan. 7. The district superintendents decided on the early-morning delay via email the previous day.

Photo via AJC
The polar vortex makes waiting for the school bus
an unbearable feat for students in New Jersey.

“We have a conference call and make decisions together,” said EvaMarie Raleigh, superintendent of the Beach Haven School on LBI. “We talk about what we’re going to do, and we all decide together. We usually talk to each other about what’s going on down here. Sometimes it’s on a conference call, sometimes it’s through email, sometimes it’s through text messages. We’re all in connection together.”

The superintendents agreed on the districts’ delayed opening and closing for snowfall on two separate occasions in December.

On Tuesday, students, faculty and staff at the Beach Haven School started the workday at 10:20 a.m. instead of the usual 8:20 a.m. opening.

“It makes things easier when you calculate classes in school and shift things for 90 minutes. Otherwise our classes get confused,” Raleigh said.

The school’s nine classes, including lunch, were shortened 10 minutes each; the classes were held for 30 minutes instead of 40 minutes.

Raleigh said the school building was warm when she arrived at 8:25 that morning.

“We weren’t sure (the building would be warm), so it gave us that extra two hours to make sure it was perfect for the kids to come in,” she said. “It was more the wind chill and the children waiting on the corners for the buses, the extreme weather conditions and being out in the elements, that was the concern.”

The Barnegat Township school district had a delayed opening of two hours for four elementary schools, a middle school and the high school. 

“It was really too cold out there to have the kids stand out at the bus stops at the normal early morning time,” said Helen Behrens, administrative assistant to Superintendent Karen Wood. “It should be better on Wednesday.”

— Kelley Anne Essinger

This article was published in The SandPaper.