SOUTHERN COLORADO — The snowstorm on Friday forced some schools to close their campuses, while others remained open. School District 49 admitted on Facebook they made a mistake not taking a snow day, and apologized to parents and students who were confused by the decision.
A representative from School District 49 said they have over 25 campuses and around 24,000 students. Of those students, around 75% made it to school on Friday. But one of the biggest questions from parents and students was why the district would cancel school on Tuesday of this week, but not Friday. "It annoyed me almost that today wasn't even anything, and Tuesday was shut down," said Hunter Zahn, a junior at Falcon High School.
Zahn's mother, Jen Goodin, made the decision to not take Zahn to school on Friday. Her daughter did start the day at at Falcon Middle School, but Goodin pulled her out early. "I think twice before taking my kids or myself in conditions like this... I am glad that they realize they made the wrong call, but it's after the fact," said Goodin.
The School District told News5 they use the weather forecasts to help decide whether or not to hold school, as well as people giving them road conditions in real time. However, they said on Friday morning, the call was made too early. "We understand that the feedback that we got today was that we missed this call... we take that to heart, and we'll continue to use that feedback to make better decisions," said David Nancarrow, the director of communications for the School District.
Here's the full statement from the district, including their record high number of responses on their winter weather survey:
