TRAVERSE CITY -- There's a lot that goes into making the call to close school, especially for a large school district like Traverse City.
Parent's weren't happy about the decision to hold class for half a day, and questioned why their kids had to go at all.
7 & 4 spoke with TCAPS Chief Financial and Operating Officer, Paul Soma, who explained everything that goes into making such a big decision.
According to Soma, a team from TCAPS heads out early in the morning to check on the current weather conditions.
Based on those, the forecast, and decisions from neighboring school districts, the team then makes their judgment call by 4:00am whether or not to keep the schools open for the day.
Soma said the decision was especially difficult today because the weather predictions were so extreme, but at the time that a decision had to be made, the temperature was in the mid 30's and not a single snow flake had fallen.
The team has to make a decision by 4:30 in the morning for the Intermediate School District and by 6:00am for transportation.
Once the winter storm predictions were confirmed, Soma made another call to keep the school's open for a half day, so that students could get home safely before the weather got worse.
" It's always our main priority to keep the safety of the student's," said Soma. "It's our number one priority. And here we feel like we are airing on the side of caution closing school down half way through the day today, as opposed to waiting until the end of the day. And I don't feel at any point today that the busses are experiencing road conditions that they're not any capable of handling."
TCAPS will remain closed through Friday, December 21st.
