Parents: Residents must pitch in to make kids’ winter walk to school safe

LYNN – The decision to open Lynn schools Wednesday morning was clearly one made by school officials that could not please everyone.”It seemed safe for walking. I did feel comfortable (keeping schools open). If parents feel it is unsafe, they have the last call,” newly elected Superintendent Cathy Latham said. Latham said she stayed up late Tuesday monitoring weather reports and was out at 5:30 Wednesday morning driving the city streets and walking sidewalks near her home.Making her first weather call underscored the balance Latham faces as the schools’ chief decision-maker in weighing sidewalk safety against the need to alert the public early enough to cancel school.Wendy Rigione would have preferred not to walk her two children to the Ingalls School Wednesday even though only an inch or two of slush coated the sidewalk along Essex Street.Parents walking their children to school Wednesday and those dropping off kids offered varied views on ways school officials should balance safety on snowy days with the daycare burden a snow day imposes on working parents.”The schools don’t realize how many people don’t clear walks,” Rigione said as she watched her first- and third-grader troop into the school yard.Lauren Wilson sympathized with the decision facing school officials on bad weather days in a city where many children walk to school.”I think they do a pretty good job,” she said as she watched son Trent tromp across the Ingalls school yard.Winter’s first several weeks have clogged streets, sidewalks and school yards with snow and ice. A sloppy mix of snow, freezing rain and sleet mired the morning commute to work and school. Freezing rain became all rain by the afternoon when temperatures climbed into the upper 30s.Schools and colleges across the state closed for the day or delayed opening as a winter weather advisory remained in effect for the Boston area.