Schools Make It Through Cold Snap

By Adam Swift

The first weekend of February saw record-breaking cold across New England.

The Winthrop schools, like everyone else across the region, faced some challenges as the temperatures went into a freefall, but came out of the cold snap without any major issues.

Superintendent of Schools Lisa Howard said preparation was key as the mercury began to drop on Friday, and she ultimately made the decision not to close school.

At Monday night’s School Committee meeting, Howard walked through the process the district goes through when facing the potential for inclement weather.

“The most difficult part of my job each year is deciding whether or not to have a snow day,” said Howard, joking that it has left a mark on her that she once called a snow day  for a day when no snow ultimately fell from the skies.

“I do have a tremendous amount of support from my 15-year-old son, who convinces me if it looks like it is going to snow to call a snow day,” Howard said.

Ultimately, Howard said she consults with the police and fire chiefs, as well as the public works department and superintendents from across the North Shore to help determine if Winthrop schools will be closed due to the weather.

So far this year, Howard said she hasn’t had to make the call for a snow day.

“I will say, and I shared this with the school facility manager, it is all about pregaming,” said Howard.

The Winthrop schools put out a document to all its custodians and maintenance people to help prepare when bad weather, such as the recent arctic cold, are forecast.

“I am happy to report that we did not have any issues,” Howard said of the weekend. “We did a lot of work with windows closing and temperatures being set a certain way. We do have some issues in some of our buildings with some of our outside walls where we are finding we have to run the water in some of the buildings in this very unusual cold snap.”

The biggest area of concern is at the Arthur T. Cummings Schools, where some of the outside walls that face the playground are in need of insulation and were very cold.

“But in finding these ahead of time, we were able to keep the water running there so we didn’t experience any pipe breakage,” said Howard. She added that there is likely a need to put insulating those walls higher up on the district’s facilities needs list.