Voices, a Podcast from the Seneca Valley School District

Episode 27 - An Inside Look: How SV Handles Inclement Weather with Mr. Jim Pearson

January 13, 2021 Seneca Valley School District Season 1 Episode 27
Voices, a Podcast from the Seneca Valley School District
Episode 27 - An Inside Look: How SV Handles Inclement Weather with Mr. Jim Pearson
Show Notes Transcript

SHOW TOPIC
An Inside Look: How SV Handles Inclement Weather

SPECIAL GUEST
Mr. Jim Pearson, Seneca Valley Transportation Director

Jim Pearson  has previous experience as the assistant principal of Deer Lakes Middle School, as well as the assistant principal of Hampton Middle School and the dean of students for Hampton High School. Mr. Pearson has trained and received his Commercial Drivers License (CDL) with school bus and passenger endorsements, and is a member of the National Association for Pupil Transportation, Pupil Transportation Association of Pennsylvania and the Midwestern Pupil Transportation Association.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW

  • Steps of the process for monitoring during an inclement weather event.
  • Communications with other school districts and community public works departments.
  • District and bus company personnel involvement and district size. 
  • Impact of extreme cold weather temperatures on transportation.
  • Criteria considered when working with the Superintendent to decide two-hour delays vs. a closure.

USEFUL INFORMATION
www.svsd.net
https://www.svsd.net/weathernotice
https://portal.svsd.net/

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

File Name: Voices E27 Jim Pearson.mp3

File Length: 00:12:52


00:00:02:23 - 00:00:07:25

Introduction: Welcome to Voices, a podcast brought to you by the Seneca Valley School District. 

 

00:00:10:18 - 00:00:16:29

Jeff Krakoff: I'm Jeff Krakoff here with Jim Pearson, transportation director for Seneca Valley School District. Jim, welcome. 

 

00:00:17:15 - 00:00:18:03

Jim Pearson: Thank you. 

 

00:00:18:17 - 00:00:33:00

Jeff Krakoff: So while we're in the season of potential storms and inclement weather, can you walk us through the process when you're monitoring for a storm of that? How far in advance does that begin and how do you do it? 

 

00:00:34:04 - 00:01:12:23

Jim Pearson: Typically, it's a couple of days in advance. The National Weather Service usually sends out an alert that something is on its way. And so we start monitoring it two days out. And then we're also looking at other agencies that are out there, you know, whether it's Weather Bug or the Weather Channel and see how accurate is that prediction? Sometimes one weather agency will say that it's going right at us and another agency will say, well, it looks like it's going to go a little bit south of us. 

 

00:01:13:07 - 00:01:36:00

Jim Pearson: So if they're all in coordination with each other, then you can pretty much know that it's going to smack us. But if one is a little bit off, then you tend to hold off on the call to to wait and see. But that's usually about two days in advance is when we're watching. 

 

00:01:36:12 - 00:01:46:09

Jeff Krakoff: OK, and who outside the district did reach out to? Are there any other agencies or organizations that you keep in touch with? 

 

00:01:47:15 - 00:02:33:04

Jim Pearson: We keep in touch with the surrounding school districts. So I'll talk to the transportation directors in  Mars and Slippery Rock and Pine Richland and North Allegheny and Butler. So to see what they're thinking if we're having that conversation the night before, or are we having that conversation at three, four o'clock in the morning, the day of. But usually we try to pretty much stay on the same page, although Butler and Slippery Rock, they may see, depending on the weather pattern, they may be getting hit with more snow or ice because they're a little bit further north than what we see here. 

 

00:02:33:06 - 00:03:09:00

Jim Pearson: So but it's also good to know what's the wind array. Is that coming at us? You know, if Slippery Rock is 40 minutes away, are we going to start seeing a snow squall or ice event that's going to happen, you know, 40 minutes or so? You know, it's always good to talk to those people. We also are in touch with the road masters. Mike Spiker is in Lancaster Township, Gary Cousins's in Jackson Township, Charlie Beahm in  Forward Township. 

 

00:03:09:14 - 00:03:41:11

Jim Pearson: And then you got a plethora of people in Cranberry Township. I primarily talk about how and Marty McKinney and Kelly Mauer in those areas because they have what's called an on-call person overnight and that kind of rotates. So it all depends on who's who and who drew the lucky straw, you know, and that morning. And so we're talking to a bunch of people in that process. 

 

00:03:41:23 - 00:04:12:14

Jim Pearson: And then I'm also talking with Sandy Russ works for Valley Line. She's the garage manager. She's running roads in Lancaster Township area. And Kurt Scheidemantle works as the garage manager for ABC Transit and he lives in Forward Township. So he's running those roads. And then I'm covering Cranberry because I live in Wexford. So it helps divvy up the territory for Seneca Valley. 

 

00:04:13:00 - 00:04:15:25

Jim Pearson: And and then we're talking to each other 

 

00:04:17:15 - 00:04:48:23

Jim Pearson: at four thirty in the morning and figuring out what we're going to do, because then we then make the recommendation about four forty five to Dr. Vitale and then she gets on the horn with her other superintendents of this school districts that are in close proximity and and they start talking. So and then typically a call for a two hour delay is made around like the SchoolMessenger will go out to the parents around five thirty. 

 

00:04:48:25 - 00:04:57:19

Jim Pearson: Typically, we won that call to be made closer to 5:00 because we have bus drivers that are further out and 

 

00:04:59:13 - 00:05:22:01

Jim Pearson: the garage  managers will start the phone chain to call the bus drivers to make sure that if we're calling a two hour delay at five o'clock, then it gives them time to think about getting in, taking their time to get into the garage. And then we typically then will make the decision around seven or seven thirty to close. 

 

00:05:22:17 - 00:05:36:14

Jeff Krakoff: OK, so let's say there is a weather event taking place on any given day. Walk me through how many people and what types of people get involved, whether they work for the school district or they work for the bus and company. 

 

00:05:38:01 - 00:06:12:03

Jim Pearson: Well, like I say, Sandy and Kurt and myself, we're up three o'clock in the morning, getting on the roads about three-thirty . And then we'll start to converse about 4:15 a.M. Or so as to what our recommendation is going to make to Dr. Vitale. And then and then, of course, in that same conversation, I'm talking to all those road masters that were mentioned and getting their input. You know are they staying ahead of the snow or is it starting to get ahead of them? 

 

00:06:14:02 - 00:06:53:17

Jim Pearson: What are conditions in Lancaster Township? Tends to have a lot of open fields and the snow will drift over the roads if the wind is blowing hard and they'll see more like snow squalls in that area. Whereas in Forward township, it seems that there's more icy conditions in that area. So, you know, you get different reports from different areas of the the school district. And so it does it takes it takes a lot of people involved in the process to communicate and see what's going on. 

 

00:06:53:19 - 00:07:20:04

Jim Pearson: Of course, Cranberry has more snow plows so they can take care of a problem a little bit faster. So the roads may look clear in Cranberry, but you have to realize that in Lancaster Township, they may only have two snow plows and the same went Forward Township. So, you know, they're covering an equal amount of area as Cranberry, but with only two plows. So 

 

00:07:21:27 - 00:07:39:08

Jim Pearson: sometimes we'll get calls from people in Cranberry who can't believe that we call the two-hour delay or a closing, but they're not seeing the roads that are up here in Lancaster and Forward Township. So we have to take the whole school district in effect and not just one area. 

 

00:07:39:20 - 00:07:57:27

Jeff Krakoff: And then I know the school district has its grounds, folks, that will do the clearing and salting. So. So we've talked about snow, ice. What about just extreme cold weather? What kind of impact does when it gets really cold and at what temperature does it really start to cause a problem? 

 

00:07:58:20 - 00:08:33:12

Jim Pearson: It is about minus 10 is when we start to see that, we start saying that that's going to be too cold, not only for the buses running, although new technology, new chemicals and those type of things have helped buses stay running versus in years past when we used to have a company called AJ Meyers that had a garage that could take all the buses and house them inside their garage. 

 

00:08:33:24 - 00:08:56:12

Jim Pearson: So you didn't really have to worry about them freezing overnight or anything like that. But now the bus companies, the buses sit out, but then they have electric cords that go hook up to the engine and keep that engine warm and those type of technologies that they have, 

 

00:08:57:28 - 00:09:07:16

Jim Pearson: what's called DPF fluid that helps keep the engine parts running. And everything is keeping 

 

00:09:09:03 - 00:09:27:15

Jim Pearson: keeping from freezing is basically that's that's the technology that I know this is it. And ends up that just kids standing outside too, you know, most students are in in their parents' cars waiting for the buses. 

 

00:09:27:17 - 00:09:45:09

Jim Pearson: But we do have other students that don't have that luxury. So they are out there maybe waiting on the bus for five, 10 minutes. And if it's minus 10, that can get a little chilly. So so we we look at that as kind of a benchmark of minus 10 

 

00:09:47:04 - 00:09:48:12

Jim Pearson: and we try to 

 

00:09:50:04 - 00:10:05:09

Jim Pearson: take, in effect, the wind chill. So we if it's zero degrees out and there's a 10 mile an hour wind. That'll tell you that it's minus 10 with the wind chill, but we're looking at a minus 10 without the wind chill. 

 

00:10:06:12 - 00:10:24:14

Jeff Krakoff: OK, last question. So when you know, there's whether you're getting reports from all the people you're talking with, what is the criteria that you use to consider and working with the superintendent to make a decision? Are we closing? Is it a two hour delay? 

 

00:10:27:12 - 00:10:46:07

Jim Pearson: Primarily, just what does it feel like when you're driving the roads, you know, like there has been times where I've been just leaving the house and all of a sudden you get that red light all of a sudden and you hit the brakes and you just slide right through the intersection and you're like, well, maybe we should call a two hour delay. 

 

00:10:47:26 - 00:11:18:07

Jim Pearson: So, you know, that tells you right away. But other times, you know, it's like it just you've got to watch the radar because we've had situations where it looks fine at five o'clock in the morning when you're making that call. But if you're not looking at that radar and a lot of our weather comes from Youngstown, so if you're looking at the radar and you see a big blue glob coming toward us from Youngstown, you can bet that we're going to get hit. 

 

00:11:18:22 - 00:11:42:21

Jim Pearson: So and a lot of times that's what I'll talk to Tracy and say, look, according to radar, you know, this thing is going to hit about like seven o'clock, which is typically when our buses start leaving the garage to pick up high school kids. So, you know, is it better to do a two hour delay knowing that that's coming in? And by watching the radar, you know, it's going to get out of the area by 9:00. 

 

00:11:43:02 - 00:11:45:16

Jim Pearson: So that takes care of that two hour delay. So 

 

00:11:47:07 - 00:12:19:07

Jim Pearson: versus, you know, is it an all day event? So you take a lot of that into consideration. And it's just like I say, in some parts, it could be icy. But if that's only affecting like two routes in in more rural areas and further up into an area that only two routes are going to be affected, then you can't call off school or, you know, do a two hour delay just because two buses are going to be a little bit late. 

 

00:12:19:22 - 00:12:27:03

Jim Pearson: So we also take that into consideration as far as, you know, whether we're going to delay or close. 

 

00:12:27:14 - 00:12:31:07

Jeff Krakoff: So it's part science and part common sense. Right, right.

 

00:12:31:09 - 00:12:31:26

Jim Pearson:  Right. 

 

00:12:32:16 - 00:12:41:05

Jeff Krakoff: Well, that that's great. Thanks for sharing everything. This is Jim Pearson, transportation director. Again, thanks for joining us and have a great day. 

 

00:12:41:22 - 00:12:43:24

Jim Pearson: You too. Thank you very much for having me. 

 

00:12:44:02 - 00:12:44:28

Jeff Krakoff: All right. Take care.