School Closings

[HUNT397]

I am just wondering how many other teams out there are having a similar problem of their school being closed (due to 14 in of snow and -5 F tempatures) limiting when you can work?

FYI... SO far the school has been closed for 5 school days not includeing the weekend.

[Team 135]

We are having the same problem, and every snow day we argue with the school administration to let us in and we will have to see today what happens.

[11Mort11]

we just go in
theres an infamous story
of how they worked in the back of the woodshop with no heat locked out had to walk in the snow to school to get the robot programmed if we have to we would go in

ask anyone on MORT we only hear this story six times a day

[Koko Ed]

I remember the days of school closings.
Now that I work for a living that is just a memory. Unless there is some sort of major catastrophe my job does not shut down. Period.
There was a major blizzard in '99 and it dropped 24 inches of snow while we were at work. They let us go a half an hour early and the snow was up to the hood of my truck. They didn't dig out the parking lot til 1am and I then I was up til 3 digging out my own driveway so I could get my truck off the street. Fortunately they canceled work the next day and then the day after that they got another 20 inches on top of that (but that was a Saturday so not many people were working anyways).
Now I plan ahead and have extra food stored at work and such just in case such a thing ever happens again.

[Andrew Schreiber]

I know when I was on 27 we went in, gosh thats when I got most of my work done. We had keys to the building. Now 397 does the same, we just let ourselves in. Actually when we have snow days we go in earlier.

[EricLeifermann]

They don't really close school up here in Houghton. On the off chance they do we just tell the high schoolers they don't have to come if its to dangerous for them to get to the facility, as we don't work at the high school. We did get one day off this year so far, but it was more the 30+ below zero wind chill we had than the snow.

[Matt C]

Wasn't there some type of extension back in 2k3 due to a blizzard near ship date?

[usbcd36]

Last weekend, we were locked out of the school because of a bomb threat. Luckily, we'd left almost all of our stuff at one of our sponsor's places. This weekend, we weren't so lucky. Our advisor insisted that we not take too much stuff there, so we didn't. We have the robot in his van, but no OI, programming cables, or kit parts not already on the 'bot. Then they closed school today, preventing us from working.

[Jherbie53]

Originally Posted by Matt C

Wasn't there some type of extension back in 2k3 due to a blizzard near ship date?

There was a major snow storm in the north east in 2003 and 2004, so they decided to extend the ship deadline to Thursday rather then Tuesday for both years.

Now we don't officially have it at the school on snow days, but it you are passing by and happen to see some cars outside and are wondering whats going on, you can come in. We also stress that if the roads or weather are bad don't come in. I remember a couple of years ago is was so bad that some of the people from Fruitport, which is about 40 mins north of us, on the team had to stay with one of our mentors for the night. It's not worth getting into an accident at night so you can be at school in the morning.

[FTCmisfit]

On team 11 we do hear they story as 11mort11 said at least 100 times a week

-Misfit

[artdutra04]

Snow days and school closings just mean bonus hours to work on the robot instead of going to class.

If you do get them, enjoy the extra work time. If for some reason you can't get into the shop to work on the robot, then pick up a sled, a ton of snowballs, and some friends and go have fun.

Because in only a few more years, having college classes / work canceled for snow will be a very rare event.

[wendymom]

One of the advantages of being a 4-H team is that we don't have to worry about school schedules. We build at the sheriffs barn. Besides...it never snows here......now if build was during hurricane season it might be a bit different.

[AJ R]

School closings and snow days are great for our team. We don't meet at the school so we can work all day.

[gurellia53]

Originally Posted by AJ R

School closings and snow days are great for our team.

Same here. If there's a snow day (in Peoria, that means anywhere above 3" of snow overnight) we try to call the team and go work on the robot. Most of us don't go to the school where our shop is so the robotics team is more of an out of school activity than a club. This lets us be somewhat independent of school schedules and such.

Tomorrow is Lincoln's birthday and only 4 of us are in a school district that has it off. We're planning to be in the shop most of tomorrow.

[Beth Sweet]

Our rule for being at the school when the school is closed: don't go past this doorway, or you'll set off the alarm and the police will come and take us alllll to jail (which will make it so the robot doesn't get done)