Revere under fire for school decision

REVERE – The biggest hassle derived from Friday’s snowstorm wasn’t accumulation or even flooding; it was a decision to keep the schools open, said Mayor Daniel Rizzo.”I have to say this storm didn’t come as advertised,” he said.Rizzo said even as early as 4:30 a.m. he was not worried about the storm because there was very little accumulation on the ground. That changed rapidly, however, and while schools in Lynn, Saugus, Lynnfield and Swampscott closed for the day, Superintendent Paul Dakin made the decision, with Rizzo’s support, to only delay Revere’s school opening by one hour. Marblehead initially announced it would have a two-hour delay but it also closed for the day.The storm seemed to peak not only during the morning rush hour but also at the point of no return in terms of deciding on whether to cancel school, Rizzo said.”When it was at its maximum potential it was absolutely the wrong time,” he said. “And we did handle a lot of calls from disgruntled parents who didn’t think their kids should have to go to school.”The problem, Rizzo said, is they had already announced to parents that there would be a one-hour delay. The decision was made on the best information they had regarding the storm’s track, he added. Rizzo said when the school makes an announcement like that, parents immediately make plans to account for the delay.”If we all of a sudden announce, ‘by the way, we’re cancelling school altogether,’ parents have to scramble,” he said. “We were really just in a quandary.”Rizzo admits that if they knew the storm was going to be even half the trouble, they would have cancelled school altogether.Dakin appeared to feel the same way. By 7:20 a.m. Dakin apologized for his decision in a tweet, writing, “Sorry I didn’t do a good job with today’s decision, but it can’t change now. Go slow, be safe and look out for each other.”He later tweeted, “Students not in school today must be officially marked absent, but the day will not count against grades if it brings total over the limit.””It was our biggest hassle,” Rizzo said. “But it will all be melted by Sunday and just be a memory. Spring’s around the corner.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].