The idea that the School District will not find a permanent solution to the roofing problem kind of offends me. As a student of Parker, I had to stand out in that rain. By the end of the day only 20% of the student body remained in the school. There are confirmed reports of multiple leaks in the gym (where the fire alarm malfunction began), large auditorium, and even the central hallway. The leaks grow worse and worse, and I fear it is only a matter of time before the roof comes off again.

This problem needs to be permanently solved now.

Well Kudos to you. Shame on all those silly plow drivers who were getting stuck and going off the streets and roads that were in such good shape. We will keep teaching our kids bad habits for keeping them home during a bad snow storm while you teach yours to disobey law enforcement when they say to stay off the streets and roads. But I digress, if you say it is so, it must be! lol

Yes I am going to say the same thing. I have no idea why the Janesville schools are closed today. I have had reasons to be out this morning and the city streets are in good shape. The Sheriff covers county roads. I suppose the Janesville schools learned their lesson from all the horrible things that happened to so many children going and coming from school yesterday. Oh the horror!!

Exactly...the sheriffs office is telling EVERYONE to stay home ! This is the best decision the JSD could have made. Travel...any kind of travel today is difficult at best.

jvltheatergeekunlimited54608 - significantly better post, except for "English." My apologies for turning up the crank-meter.
wasp2491 - the end of the day was far worse than the beginning, as just north of Janesville the snow began in earnest around 1 PM or so. Since Janesville will never call school off early due to weather because they don't know if the kids will have somewhere to go (compared to Milton which takes all available phone numbers and instructions as to what to do in such event at the beginning of the year), then it was better to keep everyone home in the first place. Surely you aren't going to say the same thing about today, since the sheriff's department doesn't even want people out on the roads today (Friday)?

Joy M- I'm sorry I typed really fast before class so I could receive my education and also my fingers were frozen. I didn't mean to offend you with my grammar. I usually have pretty good grammar to be honest. I'm not trying to make excuses for my self. I just was trying to get my point across quickly so that I could move on with the rest of my day. I'm also not like the Janesville Gazette where they have access of an editor . That's why I'm in school to learn grammar. I have a lot of time left before I have to worry about graduating school. Also I have received all my english credits at Parker. Thank you for your criticism and I will make sure I will watch what I write and proofread in the near future.

I do know this, my friends, the school boundaries do not exceed the city limits in very many places. I still wonder what lessons we are teaching our kids if today was considered a dangerous day to go to school in Janesville. A pretty sad statement I think.

avidreader you are the perfect example of what a good parent should do. Made the decision that it is not safe for your child to go to school and keep them home. Most of the parents in the city complained that their kids went to school, hello you can keep them home if you want to. I wonder how many of the same people would be on here complaining if school was called off.

Thankfully I use my opinion when it comes to the safety of my children and not other people's opinions. I feel bad for all the students who had to stand in the cold rain or sit in dark cold classrooms. My son was home safe and sound because I prefer to error on the side of caution.

Thank you for clearing everything up Wasp. You say you have lived in the area all your life but had no clue about how many rural students janesville has. You say you were out driving but the roads were fine. You say we are whining and should grow up. Well clearly whatever you say must be so in your world. Please excuse me while I step back out of your world and enter the real world. Have a nice day :)

I don't have a four wheel drive vehicle, I have lived in this area all my life. This storm in my opinion was not a big deal. I was not out of the city but I was around town and think a few of you people should quit whining and grow up.

Thank you Avidreader...

Exactly avid!

Wasp, yes it is Wisconsin which is why snow days should be used on days like today. What's the point of factoring them into the school year if your not going to use them when the weater report clearly stated blizzard. I have no idea what roads you were driving on but I had to drive today and I was pretty much all over town and the roads were nasty as of about 12:30. Not to mention trees and power lines down all over town, stop signs and stop lights that couldn't be seen because they were covered with wet snow, and those that didn't even function because of power outages. These are things that happen in blizzard like conditions. Radios, tv, newspapers all stated, do not go out if you don't have to, but apparently the School District did not feel that this pertained to them. Not everyone owns fancy vehicles with 4 wheel drive and many kids have to walk to school. And just the fact that you stated Janesville has "few to no rural students" shows us that you really don't have a clue what you are talking about. Are you sure you are even in Janesville?

There are a lot of students who have to WALK home...in a BLIZZARD...

I bet the union is responsible

Wasp yes there are several rural students in the JSD my daughter is one of the yellow bus riders. You would be suprised how many rural students there are.
The country roads have been very slick and icy all day, not at all like the city roads and have not seen the salt truck yet.

My comment was for Janesville schools. As far as I know they have few to no rural students. City streets were fine and still were when school got out. And yes at one time my job did require me to be out in that weather day and night.

Let's have the district administers stand out in the pouring rain at 34 degrees for 30 minutes and see if they call it a short time then!

...And so the grammar nazis come out. Every conversation has 'em, right JoyM? Geez, get a life!

I called mine in as absent due to the weather this morning very glad I did ! Roads here in the country are getting icy, knew it would from the weather reports. Just because it was fine does not mean things can change quickly and turn dangerous.
*
I feel bad for those soaking wet kids in their "beach wear" that many were wearing for spirit week. I hope they don't get sick from it.
*
Also funny (not) to get the call about how the decision making process is for the closing/delay of school. It was all the blaah blaah blaaah Then at the very end it tells you after school activities are cancelled and that Vangalder buses will still be running, but to expect delays...That tells me that the road conditions are starting to change for the worse. JSD should have a close school early policy just for this reason but nooooo they are afraid of students not having anyone at home and such for an early closing, strange how other school are able to send kids home early but JSD is not able to...wonder what their secret is hmmmm maybe already having a plan in place for such events ahead of time, noo JSD would never want to do that now (shakes head)

wasp2491 - if your kids had to ride a bus or if you had to drive them through perilous conditions yourself, you might think differently. When it affects only yourself, you can be stupid, but not with my children, thanks.
jvltheatergeekunlimited54608, I think perhaps you need all of the school time you can get, what with using "of" instead of "off, " "are" instead of "our," "us students" instead of "we students," and "censor" instead of "sensor," plus the punctuation errors and stand-alone dependent clauses. I think smart phones are only as smart as the people using them, so shut it off and get back to work. I don't feel like supporting you because you aren't educated well enough to get a job that pays or than minimum wage when - if - you graduate.

Censor: an official who examines books, plays, news reports, motion pictures, radio and television programs, letters, cablegrams, etc., for the purpose of suppressing parts deemed objectionable on moral, political, military, or other grounds.

Sensor:a mechanical device sensitive to light, temperature, radiation level, or the like, that transmits a signal to a measuring or control instrument.

You people are ridiculous!

They had to endure the elements of the storm? Should we contact FEMA?

Students and staff both did a great job helping each other while standing in the rain! Sharing coats, getting blankets and umbrellas from trunks of staff cars...inside staff are handing out extra dry clothes and socks for those who can't get home to change. Nice job coming together in a difficult and sloppy situation.

So far, I have had to be out and see no reason why it would be necessary to close the schools. Weather would have to be worse than this. This is Wisconsin.

It was very chaotic in the offices at Parker and the staff were handling things amazingly well. Most of the kids were soaked and went home to change clothes. Thankful that even a false alarm is taken seriously. You just never know when it may be the real thing.

Thanks, wordwatchers.

Maybe if the censor hadn't tripped, the sensor wouldn't have activated

Sigh. Maybe they should censor the sensor.

Inprogress--maybe you should just be thankful that it was a false alarm. Things happen in large buildings/schools.

Yeah if the JSD would have fixed the roof and pipes correctly it would not have sent of a censor. We've complained about that to the Central office and Maintenance Staff.But nope they don't do anything about it. Also if Dr. Karen Schulte would have called of school today Students would not have been effected. the weather is getting bad.And us students are not learning anything today. Thanks to her not taking safety seriously in the Janesville School District. I thought she had are teachers lecture to us about safety the other day. But yet when it comes to her making a decision about safety she can't take her own advice as to what she's having teachers preach to us students.

I am not sure if they are rumors, but I am hearing a lot of issues arising at Parker. There was a large chunk of money spent to expand and update that building, not too long ago. What seems to be the issue? Seems they should not be having these issues (I've heard of electrical issues, a couple roof issues--one of which was in the last week or two--and now faulty alarms "tripping"). Maybe some looking into the quality of the work done is necessary?