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The Inside Wayzata Podcast
Winter Storm Warning Ride Along with Dr. Chace Anderson
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We tried something different for this episode of The Inside Wayzata Podcast. Overnight on April 2, 2026, we were under a Winter Storm Warning. When we have chances for heavy snow or ice, Dr. Chace Anderson often gets up extra early to get the lay of the land and have first hand experience when deciding whether to cancel or delay school. Listen as we join Chace on, maybe his last winter weather drive before he retires.
All right, well, I guess good morning, everyone. We it is 4 26 a.m. and we are in Chase's car. Um I'm sure there's a lot of questions formulating in in your minds as you're listening. Um it is April 2nd, 2026, and we are under under a winter storm warning. Um now it's not the most wintery storm warning we've ever had. Um I think some of the snow that was promised or uh or thought might come is is not here at this point, but there is a lot of freeze and rain. So um for those of you who don't know um Chase, when it comes to winter weather, there's a lot of uh uh boots on the ground research when it comes to uh you know what should we have school or not. So um Chase, how many times do you think you've you've done this this drive, I guess, in the morning since you've been superintendent?
SPEAKER_02Well, I would say over an 18-year period, there's probably been an average of uh at least two or three mornings every year where I've gotten out bright and early to drive uh the roads to find out how they are. I like to experience and the experience them myself so I can get a good feel for what the conditions are gonna look be like for the school buses and for high school kids who drive to school, and just for uh parents who are gonna be dropping their kids off to get a good feel for what the roads are like, and then you kind of have to do a little bit of guesswork to determine what might it be like in two hours or three hours, and how much road clearing will there be, how much more snow is on the way, are the temperatures gonna drop so that in the event of a morning like this where it's raining and it's currently 33 degrees, um, you worry about the rain picking up and the temperature plummeting and having somewhat of a quick freeze, which can make it really tricky uh to uh navigate the buses and the cars. So sometimes there's a little bit of guesswork that goes into this, and you literally have to kind of roll the dice a bit and think, alright, what's the most likely thing gonna happen uh between now and when the kids are at the bus stops and hopping on the buses? There's typically a 4 a.m. webinar, which I watched this morning. It was a little bit shorter than typical because this event is a little bit more rain and prospect of freezing rain, at least in the metro area, and uh there wasn't really a whole lot to report, so it literally was about 15 minutes long. Sometimes those can go 45 minutes, particularly in the more complex uh storms that cover a broader area. There's typically a lot of questions, and uh it's not been uncommon over the years where uh there can be literally 12 or 15 inches in the South Metro and maybe three or four in the north metro, so there can be a real tight gradient sometimes. So I've had a lot of experiences with this, and there's always uh some adventures with it. I've had a few fun stories over the years that have happened, and uh I typically throw my shovel in the back of the car because literally there have been times when I've gotten hung up in a snowdrift and had to dig myself out. But uh a lot of interesting things happen between 4 a.m. and and 5 a.m. when you're on the roads, and sometimes I'm even out early or maybe closer to 3:30. It all depends on the nature of the storm.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so essentially what you're trying to figure out is is it safe to have our buses transport students to school and is it safe for uh parents, guardians, and or students to drive to schools? Is that correct? That's correct. So yeah, we're we're coming up on the high school now. So what when you're out here, obviously you're checking the roads, and that's you know, perhaps the most important thing, but I assume there's an element of our you know, in the event of a bigger snowstorm and even some ice like this, are schools able to clear walkways and parking lots.
SPEAKER_02Is that correct? That's correct. That's a big big issue for us. We're fortunate that we have a lot of great snow removing equipment. Kids probably don't like that so much because it means uh with our staff working literally overnight, they can have the lots and the uh sidewalks ready to go if the snow stops by 2 or 3 a.m. Uh typically by the time the kids would show up, the parking lots are clear and the sidewalks are in a good place and uh have been uh cleared and and de-iced and are in pretty good shape actually by the time the kids get here. Um we do have a lot of great equipment. We uh it's not uncommon for me on a morning like this. If we if we would have had six, eight, or ten inches of snow to see at least two large snow plows here in the high school lot. Uh maybe a few uh people out uh on the sidewalks with snowblowers clearing off the sidewalks, but they literally work through the night sometimes to do the snow removal. And I'm always amazed when I'm out driving around on these trips how great of a job our buildings and grounds crew uh does with the snow removal so that we can be in a position to you know do our very best to start school on time and uh you know do a uh great job of um helping to ensure that our kids and staff can make it through the parking lots and into the buildings safely and and in pretty well cleared areas.
SPEAKER_00I feel like you know, and I I get to see in communications the kind of the the tail end of any sort of decision on school because we would send out the communication, but I suppose all of this comes down to timing, right? So you have schools, you know, our early schools start at 745, you know, our you know, some of our elementary schools start a little later, middle school, high school a little later. I suppose it's a game of for both the roads and the schools based on the conditions right now, is there enough time for the cities, the counties to clear the roads, and then ultimately our buildings and grounds team to clear the school areas? So, how much of a a guessing game and I guess minute by minute kind of teeter on like should we will we have enough time to for everything to clear up before making that decision?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, those are great questions, and they all weigh into what the final decision is gonna be. Every storm is different, and that's what makes it difficult. Sometimes I'll get some feedback. Well, why didn't you call it last night? Or in the morning, yeah, well, you called it last night. Why didn't you wait till this morning? That storm went south or north of us, and we hardly got any snow. Um, but it's really difficult to fully predict, and there isn't a perfect crystal ball on exactly what's gonna happen. But the timing of when a storm starts and when it ends are really important because if the storm finishes by even midnight, and we know that the snow has moved out and we're probably not gonna get too much more by morning. Uh the crews work overnight, and I have a pretty good feeling that by morning at least the parking lots and the sidewalks at our schools are gonna be in really good shape. Um, our cities are great also at clearing the bus routes first, so they know all the school district bus routes and they clear those uh roads first. They probably don't spend a lot of time on the cul-de-sac and the uh side streets and and some of that, which can be a little bit challenging for some of the families trying to leave their uh garage or parking uh um driveways. But um our cities are are really great partners with us on helping to make sure that they do the best they can to help the roads be cleared and ready to go. So the timing is a big part of it, and then during the day it can be kind of tricky too if you know that uh the predictions are heavy snow beginning at around 11.30 or noon uh on any given day, trying to envision what might it be like at 2.30 or 3.30 when the buses are picking kids up and bringing them home. And then we think a little bit about uh early dismissals and just trying to get our buses going a little bit sooner. Uh, likewise in the morning, one of the things we do periodically is to do a um a two-hour delayed start. Those are kind of nice if you call them the night before because it gives you a little more time in the morning to assess the roads and determine if you can go forward with that late start. Or if uh you early in the morning the storm is shifted and now you're gonna get uh 15 inches instead of seven inches, then you can still make the decision to cancel school that day, but at least you've left the door open as long as you could for hopefully being able to convene school uh during that day. So there is a lot with the timing, both when it starts and when it ends. And uh again, as I said before, we have a wonderful staff that's great at uh getting the parking lots and and sidewalks cleared, and and uh I'm sure our kids would prefer they weren't quite so good at their jobs, but uh their role is to help us uh have every opportunity to open school on time, and I know our families appreciate that and and uh like it when their kids are able to make it to school.
SPEAKER_00Well, I would say so now we're we're coming up on Kimberly Lane elementary. Uh the high school looked pretty good to me. There wasn't a lot of slick uh anything yet at this point. But again, we're it's 4 36 a.m. So between now and you know about nine o'clock, I suppose anything could happen.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you never really know what that temperature is gonna do, and just in the time that we've been driving, uh it's dropped from 33 degrees to 32 degrees. They aren't uh predicting that there's gonna be a a huge drop with the temperature, which is is good news for road conditions because the roads right now really are just wet. I haven't really detected much slippage with my uh my car this morning. And oftentimes when I'm on these journeys, that isn't the case at all. And it's very difficult to navigate. I've been out on icy mornings. Literally, one time uh over by Gleason Lake Elementary, I pulled into a driveway on one of those icy mornings, uh uh pushed my brake and stopped on the driveway, which of course had the normal incline, and literally I began sliding off the driveway because the ice was so thick. And uh I knew at that point maybe this morning would be a good day to at least do a late start, but I and I can't remember what we ended up doing on that day, but uh that's one of the the fun stories that I like to share, which obviously it was a pretty treacherous morning.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you're you're getting real-time uh real-time uh uh experience on what cars and buses would be experiencing, and it's probably the goal, right?
SPEAKER_02Um yeah, it really is, and I've just always been one that likes to get out and experience it myself. Um I work in close tandem with our transportation uh uh staff members, uh, both the person that coordinates the bus drivers and all the routes and all the specifics uh related to that. And then also with our uh director of buildings and grounds of transportation, John Deutsch and I are in communication. Typically, I send a text message to Brandon Schneider, who's our uh scheduler and and works directly with the bus drivers. John Deutsch works in our buildings and grounds, and then Trevor Peterson is our executive director of finance who oversees all the operations uh such as transportation. So I typically will text them, indicate I'm heading out on the roads, and then uh make a stop somewhere along the way and give them a quick update. I ask Brandon what do you think uh today is looking like, and he'll give me a thumbs up or uh you know a little bit of a uh wonderment maybe yet at that point, or he may say he's awaiting to hear word from some of the other districts that first student provides services to. And uh then collectively uh with those individuals from inside the school district, we we make a pretty good decision for what we think we can do. And then uh early morning, typically around 4:30-ish, uh, there'll be a large distribution of text messages from school superintendents who are uh sort of sort of trying to gauge what to do in their districts as well. So the rule of thumb for me has always been don't be the only person to cancel, or the only person who doesn't cancel. You never want to go it alone because then you can uh uh really kind of stand out as not having made the greatest of decisions. But it is really difficult, and there are times, as I suggested earlier, that the South Metro may have a whole different set of circumstances than the North Metro, and uh it might depend also on how many routes uh school bus routes might be more out in the open area. So if there are some more rural areas or uh you know areas that are tending more toward drifting or icing, uh some of those districts they might need to make the call a little bit sooner because we're a little more protected from uh the wind freeze that can happen on the roads or the uh visibility conditions or the significant drifting, we probably are protected a little bit from that because of all the houses and trees and and uh rolling hills, which uh can tend to disrupt those wind patterns that can create some issues as well. So uh not only is it um a lot of considerations to take within your own school district and then to work as a team with the other superintendents, but every district is gonna be a little bit different and they're gonna be impacted by conditions in different ways than maybe the district right next to them.
SPEAKER_00Who is are you the leader of the superintendent tax group or who's uh if you assume the kind of uh the lead role there?
SPEAKER_02Uh not always, but I can usually weigh in pretty quickly, and I I think I have sort of developed a reputation for being one that has probably been out on the roads in most of the conditions personally.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna ask are they do they all know that you're uh you're driving around? And I guess are some of our neighbors or their superintendents out driving around that.
SPEAKER_02You know, I don't imagine there could be a handful of us uh that get out bright and early, but I think I might be a bit unique in that category. And uh most of my colleagues know that I'm a farm kid, and uh uh the weather is a big deal when you're on the farm because you monitor it all the time. So I think, although I don't know that it's really accurate, they believe I have some kind of a sixth sense to uh uh be able to predict the weather and know exactly what the conditions are gonna be. But and I may have developed some perceptiveness on that and can listen to what the weather reports say, but they can be off sometimes too, and that can be pretty tricky. I can recall one night um I took our dog out um before bedtime, and the moon was shining, and the weather report for the next day was absolutely terrible, and it was predicted that we were supposed to get 10 to 15 inches of snow, I think. And uh we called school off the night before, and when I took our dog out that night, I even thought, I'm not sure that was a great decision because it was perfect, the roads were fine. Um, and I even had an email uh that night from a parent who was a bit upset about my early call, indicating the same thing I just observed. Moon's out, the weather's nice, the streets are fine, great call, way to go. And uh by 10 a.m. that next morning, I think we had eight inches of snow on the ground. So um never have I prayed for snow more than that night. Um it materialized. So it really is an imperfect science, and there's no uh uh right or wrong answers. I guess there's multiple right answers. Sometimes, you know, calling it off or not calling it off could be the right answer, and it uh will just mostly have an impact on the quality of the commute, and uh, of course, we always want to take student and staff safety into consideration as well, and to make sure that we feel that we can uh do our very best to safely maneuver the bus routes and at the same time um you know navigate right on our school campuses, and a number of our staff also commute from other areas, so we have to somewhat take into account as well that we're gonna have a full complement of staff here today. Yeah, and uh oftentimes we find if staff are gone and the snow is you know challenging, at least in parts of the metro, that some of our substitute teachers might think, oh, I think it's a good day to not take a job. I'm just gonna stay home today and enjoy looking at the snow out the window and get my own driveway cleaned off, and and therefore then you can end up with a shortage of subs. So you do kind of have to take a look at it a bit from the staffing perspective as well. But safety is first and foremost on the the the top of the list and and whether buses can navigate. Typically, according to uh Brandon, with uh uh our organization that helps us coordinate transportation, he'll say that a five or six-inch snow starts to really challenge the buses, and depending on the type of snow, that's another consideration to make. If you have real wet, heavy snow, um, that can be good or bad. Sometimes you can get actually get better traction in the heavier snow than you might on some of the moderate uh you know, medium amount of moisture in the snow that can tend to be a little more slick, and if it's real powdery, then there could be more visibility issues, but probably less concern with uh slipperiness. But uh so there are a lot of factors. It is it's kind of a complex science with it all, but it's also um you know pretty much an imperfect science on making the perfect call every time. But it probably does help that I uh majored in science, uh both in biology and then I minored in earth science. So I have a little bit of formal training in the earth sciences, meteorology and weather, so that kind of helps a little bit too, I think. But overall, you do the best you can to try to sort out all the variables and put a plan together, you make a decision, you live with it. And almost all parents are um, you know, fine with whatever the call ends up being. What they really appreciate the most, I think, is just an early notice. So when we can make the call the night before, a lot of our parents really appreciate that because then they can implement their plan B for their own work schedules and supervision schedules for uh particularly if they have young children. Um and for some of our parents and for some of our staff, their parents or staff in other districts, and those districts might cancel or not cancel uh in contrast to our district, and that can create some logistical challenges for them. So for them to have an early notice, I can understand how that can be really helpful, but it's not always really possible because we want to make sure we give every opportunity for us to have school on time, and um sometimes we can make a better call in the morning than we can in the afternoon. I oftentimes get some interesting emails from kids too late at night, uh starting to inquire around nine o'clock. And uh, one of my better ones came just a few weeks ago. I had a student reach out who uh sent me a link to a research article indicating the cognitive benefits of children being able to stay home on snow days and uh create their own academic lessons outside. And uh I thought that was one of the more creative plays that I've I've heard. And in my first year here, my son was in eighth grade, and one of his friends from central middle school texted him and said, tell your dad if he cared about us, he'd call school off tomorrow. So those are the fun things that you get uh periodically from the kids. And I don't know. I always try to respond to them whenever they email me, and I think they're surprised I actually respond. But I am more than just a talking head uh calling school off on voicemails and and emails that go out that have a real person and and will actually respond.
SPEAKER_00Any bribes from students over the course of uh your 18 years?
SPEAKER_02Disappointingly, no.
SPEAKER_00It's still time. It's it's 4 47, I guess.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, there could be something coming in. I don't check my emails and tags while I'm driving, of course. But uh I think there would be probably some Minnesota statute that would prohibit me from accepting those.
SPEAKER_00So, kids, no need to give that one a try.
SPEAKER_01I take it anyway.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think the other unique piece, like it is spring break this week, so I there's probably some folks wondering, like, well, what what are what are you doing? Uh we do have mosetta kids though, so um our child care program is is in full swing this week, and you know, families are still dropping off their kiddos for mosetta kids, so that's it's it's typically, you know, I think we think of school as a September through end of May, end of June experience, but our Isetta Kids program is kind of makes it a year-round endeavor. That's correct. We did see a snow plow um a little bit ago. They weren't plowing per se, but they were uh looks like they were treating the roads with for some sort of whatever could come. So we've at this point we've gone from up by Meadow Ridge, and now we're we just we're at central, so we've kind of done the full uh north to south uh drive. How how would you assess the roads so far?
SPEAKER_02You know, I think we're gonna be just fine today to keep normal operations underway. There may be some normal winter driving conditions, and of course, uh staff and parents bringing their kids to school and or wherever anyone may be going should exercise caution. I would imagine there could be a few icy spots sometimes approaching a stop sign or a stoplight. Um you might just want to leave a little extra time to make sure that uh you have enough stop distance. But I really don't see that today's gonna be a big issue for us in this part of town. Um I don't know what the rest of the metro's like. I think there were some districts that actually called school off for today last night. Um made an early proactive call and shifted to e-learning. But you know, in some ways it's it's kind of nice when you're on spring break when these days hit, so you don't have quite the same stress levels that um you might when you're trying to make a decision when we're in full swing. But um, I would say today we're I think we're gonna be just fine. Yeah, maybe we'll be fortunate and miss out on this first round of precipitation anyway. It sounds like there could be another round uh here in a couple days and into the early weekend, but um I think we're we're gonna be just fine today.
SPEAKER_00Well, and it could be an an an example of you know, at four four fifty in the morning, it could be okay, but as you know, we're still almost three hours away from school starting, and a lot can change, so that's where some of that making a little bit of the crystal ball prediction, putting on your meteorology cap a little bit can come into play. That's correct.
SPEAKER_02And also the the reports are for the temperatures to stay above freezing today. So even if this turns to snow, and even you know, moderate snow that is coming down at a pretty good rate, uh this time of the year the snow tends to melt on the roads better than it does in December or January. So I would guess that the roads are mostly going to remain wet. I'm sure they were treated, and I don't think we had heavy enough rain that all the treatment would have been washed away, which that can happen sometimes too. And that's less effective. But um overall, right now we're on uh highway six crossing over 494, and the roads are just wet, and I have not detected any uh slippery conditions, even at stop signs or places where oftentimes the the slippery uh road can can happen.
SPEAKER_00And I want to add Chase is doing an excellent job driving so far. Yes, thank you. I feel safe. I pride myself on uh uh my good driving skills and uh especially in inclement weather. So I gotta ask if you had any on your morning um some of your morning endeavors, have you had any incidents of note other than perhaps getting stuck here or there?
SPEAKER_02Well, nothing uh that involved automobile damage. I have been stuck a time or two though. Probably my one of my other uh favorite times or stories was when we had a significant snow backing out of my driveway into our cul-de-sac and getting stuck out in the cul-de-sac after we'd had about a, I don't know, I think we'd had about an eight or ten inch snow when I was out trying to see, make these same decisions. And that was probably at 3.30 in the morning or so, and I just had visions of of uh our students in our neighborhood looking out their bedroom windows, seeing the superintendent stuck, and uh uh delighting in that glory of thinking for sure today we're gonna have a snow day. But uh I was able to dig my car out and proceed it on. But I believe that that day we did call school off because it was ridiculously deep, and and I think I utilized my shovel a couple times on that morning. And one of the other things that happened one morning, it might have even been that same storm, I can't remember, but for some reason I had my cell phone in one of my pockets, and and uh my cell phone toppled out on the driveway into the snow, and then I began uh driving away and then pulled over and thought, oh, I should uh connect up with John Deutsch and find out uh what his thinking is. And then I couldn't find my phone, so I was kind of in a panic because that's your, you know, we've probably come to rely on that in the morning. It's like, okay, that runs the whole show here with everybody I need to be in communication with. So I went back to our house and and pulled into the driveway, and lo and behold, I found it lying in the snow, uh in compressed snow from where I literally had driven right over it with my car. And because there was so much snow, um, it just pushed the phone down and it worked perfectly. It had absolutely no damage, so I thought that's a really good uh commercial, probably for the durability of those uh cell phones, but and then I was able to get back into communication with with uh my team and and was very happy about that.
SPEAKER_00I was gonna say that I'm I'm I'm imagining on a morning like that you have you know folks that have gotten used to you communicating early and and what uh what's the plan here? If you they were if you had lost your phone. Yes, there might be it might be a bit of a welfare check situation, like what would happen to Chase. Yeah, you get that right.
SPEAKER_02He was out and on a shackleton mission and uh got lost in the snow somewhere. But but anyway, it all ended well and and uh I can't remember exactly the call, but I do think probably we called school up on that day. So it looks like Sunset Hill's in pretty good shape, and we'll go swing through East Middle School, but I don't anticipate there's gonna be anything that looks any different anywhere else. And the roads are just wet right now. I think there's not much of anything coming down. So you know the concern for freezing rain is decreased, and and I just wouldn't really anticipate that within the next couple hours, based on what I've seen in the forecast, that there's gonna be much to be too concerned about, uh, particularly with the fact that it the temperatures are gonna stay above freezing. I don't think uh uh frozen uh surface is gonna be too big of a concern. And maybe it'll snow after a while, but again, because of the temperature and the roads are being w relatively warm and they've been treated. I think most of the snow is gonna melt on contact today and not create much of an issue, at least in our area. So you might have noticed there aren't too many cars out at 4 30 in the morning in the city of Plymouth or Maplegrove. Most people are still uh most normal people are still probably just starting to uh wake up a little bit. But as I've indicated, I like to just get out and experience it myself and then I can feel I can make a better decision and and can envision what our parents and staff and kids are gonna be navigating on, and and a lot of it really does boil down to can the buses go? And if the buses are able to go, then um you know there's a pretty good chance that we're gonna be able to have school and convene on time.
SPEAKER_00Well, it is it is it is kind of nice. There is a stillness uh when you're driving around at 4 30 in the morning. That's it's like a quiet, calm stillness that we don't really get to experience a lot anymore in a normal drive and a normal time of day. Yes.
SPEAKER_02And I've always been an early morning person. I like to get to work early regardless of whether it's snowing or not, and that's been the case for all 43 years of my career, and uh maybe part of that is just having grown up on a farm, and there's always uh plenty of good work to do, and sometimes early morning is the time you can get that done. Oftentimes before you head off to school and helping dad out, and so I think I just fell into that pattern and have really enjoyed the morning time. You also get a couple hours maybe before too many people have shown up at work, and that's a good time to get a lot of things done and get your mindset, your game plan in place for the day, and it's a it's a wonderful time of the day, I think.
SPEAKER_00Alright, so mornings like these, what time does the alarm go off?
SPEAKER_02Uh this morning I have my alarm set at 3.15. I would say the norm is uh depending on what I'm anticipating the conditions being like. Um I either set it at 3 o'clock, 3.15, or 3.30. And uh oftentimes there's a 4 o'clock a.m. weather webinar, yeah, which there was this morning, uh, which I indicated earlier. And uh that's a really great way to get those insights on what they're expecting in two hours, four hours, six hours, and and then by dismissal time, so you can kind of start thinking about okay, do we need to be thinking about an early dismissal today? Because it sounds like the heavy snow of two inches per hour is gonna start about 11.30. And um then that might get you thinking a little bit about an early dismissal. And sometimes with the first tier of buses, it may not be make full sense. But by the time that third route goes um and picks up our middle school kids around four o'clock or four fifteen, a lot of snow can accumulate between noon and four if you're getting an inch and a half or two an hour. And then you you may get a bus that's late on the first tier, and then it runs late on the second tier, and then it can be maybe up to 30 minutes late or so on that third tier. So you have to take those kind of things into account also if you're contemplating uh an early dismissal.
SPEAKER_00Alright, so 315 wake-up call, uh coffee right away, or do you brew coffee? It's uh do you like to sip coffee while the webinar is going? What's the what's the coffee process?
SPEAKER_02Coffee is always about the first thing that uh I get connected to early in the morning regardless of whether it's snow day or not. So I grind my coffee beans at night, I pour them into my uh automatic uh coffee maker and pour a cup for the trip into the office and then uh put the balance in my uh thermos uh jug that I bring to work every day. And uh by about 10 a.m. that's usually consumed.
SPEAKER_00So days when you're up at 3 in the morning, is there an extra cup of coffee at some point to uh kind of get you through the day?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would say that uh I do coffee until about 10 or 11 in the morning and then I shift over to um water usually at that point. Sure. Amply caffeinated by 10 a.m.
SPEAKER_00So you've been doing this for you know almost 18 years now. Um your wife just assumes like, all right, this is we got snow in the forecast. You do turn into kind of a different person than the night before, and does she notice like you're a little more anxious, ready to go?
SPEAKER_02You know, I think she probably does. I haven't really thought of it, but she knows when uh the weather's gonna be hitting. And I have a daughter in education, so of course she's always connecting with me, hoping that maybe the superintendent, she thinks she's usually gets an inside scoop for me. And I usually play my cards pretty close to my chest and don't uh indicate too much because I don't want word of mouth getting out in front of everything, and and I don't want to be speaking for other school districts, so um, sometimes I'll actually know that there is gonna be a snow day and that the whole metro's closing down, perhaps, and I can't say anything, and I just have to sit on it and let her wonder all night. But my wife has just gotten used to it. She knows there's a lot of uh interesting aspects of the role of superintendent and superintendent's wife, and um she just fully acknowledges uh that's your work, and whatever time you get up that you need to to do what you need to do is just fine with me and doesn't seem to bother her too much.
SPEAKER_00Just don't don't wake me up at three in the morning while you're getting fired up for the webinar. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02So that's fine. Now we're on uh 394 highway 12, and I don't know, the the main roads are gonna be fine. I don't again detect any concerns. I always when I'm on these roads, I look at the I look behind the wheels of the cars in front of me. And if there's spray, that's like great news because then I know it isn't icy underneath. Yeah. And uh there's a lot of little indicators like that that can be helpful. A few more cars out on the main roads, maybe trying to beat the traffic a little bit, thinking it'll be uh maybe a little bit slower moving. I think a lot of people know too that it's spring break, so there's just for a lot of school districts this week, and uh the overall traffic out on the roads is gonna be a little bit less today anyway, I think. So people probably won't have to get going quite as early. I don't think the commute this morning is gonna be too bad for people.
SPEAKER_00So come come next year. Let's let's let's fast forward into a hypothetical. So it's it's December 2026. You are retired at this point. Correct. Um you look at uh perhaps local news and a call for a bunch of snow in the forecasts. Are you is your body gonna wake up uh subconsciously at three in the morning? Are you gonna be tuned into the webinar?
SPEAKER_02Well, I probably won't be tuned into the webinar. I won't be getting uh text messages from my colleagues of our 10 or 15 that are on our text message uh communication stream. Um maybe I'll just hold up my cup of coffee in the morning and uh wish them all well and hope that they have a great day.
SPEAKER_00Maybe uh send a text to uh Dr. Virgin and say good luck today. Yes. Yeah, that'll be his new role.
SPEAKER_02He'll get to be on the front end of that. I have a hunch, probably most superintendents are up pretty early on possible snow days monitoring. And again, I have no idea. Maybe they all go out and drive around too, but I think maybe I picked up on that too when I was a kid in a small farm town in Iowa. I think probably the superintendent was out and about driving all over and shooting the gravel roads, the country roads, which tend to take a little longer to get cleared off. And um, so maybe I picked a little bit up from him as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I suppose regardless whether you're out driving around or it's in the forecast, it's you know probably one of the you know, maybe not the biggest decision you'll make as a superintendent, but something that there's a lot of weight to it because there's operationally that there's a lot of moving parts with the the district. Uh that's correct.
SPEAKER_02And you want to make good decisions again for safety and security and and also it's a big deal to call a day of school off. We have a lot of operations and a lot of planning went into uh being ready for the kids on that day, and and uh it is a it's a big decision, and uh we like to think that there's a value in being at school, and that's why we do everything possible that we can to help get kids there, and we know it's important to our families, and and I'm sure there's even some validity to that research study that was sent my way from that student about how fun it is to get outside and play in the snow with your friends when you have a snow day. So I think there is some legitimacy and some validity to that. But when those days happen, they're wonderful, but we do everything we can despite the weather to get kids to school, and then we create wonderful experiences for them there as well. Well, they can play out in the snow at school with the friends, right? That is correct. Maybe recess is a little bit longer on those days. There you go. Teachers might be just fine with that.
SPEAKER_00Do you remember the worst snowstorms in your uh in your tenure? Does any of them stick out? Well, it's a good question.
SPEAKER_02I think probably the one from a transportation perspective that was the worst while I've been in Wysetta was that one where I got stuck in our cul-de-sac that I spoke about earlier. I think the timing and the depth and the texture of the snow and just you know, it was a perfect storm where everything was just perfect to make conditions miserable. Of course, the prior to my time in Wyzetta, the Halloween blizzard of 1991, it's probably the all-time uh worst one in regard to volume of snow. We had I think uh 28 inches of snow that fell over about a two-day period, and I think that shut school down for two or three days, probably. And you I mean, you really couldn't even you couldn't go anywhere, you couldn't get out to go get groceries or anything for a number of days just because it took so long to clear all that snow out. And um I think the worst one I remember as a kid was the infamous January 10th, 1975 uh snowstorm that we had in northwest Iowa, and it impacted, I think, a great share of the upper Midwest. And we had strong blizzard conditions for I think two or three days. And uh kind of a moderate weight snow, so the drifting was just terrible. We literally on the farm had drifts that were 10 or 12 or 15 feet tall, literally as tall as the buildings. The snow drifted over the fence lines, uh, so literally cattle were walking on the snow over the top of the fences and out into the fields and even intermixing a little bit with the neighboring farmers' cattle. And somehow my dad thought we got probably most of ours back, and maybe a couple of someone else's because I think it balanced out. Everybody got three or four of everyone else's cattle, but they seemed to all kind of find their way back home, which I guess they're like all of us, they know where their home is and where the food is, and that's where they showed up. But that was probably the worst storm that I can remember in my lifetime, because it just went on for several days. So thankfully we haven't had anything quite that comparable here. But sometimes the ice storms can actually be more challenging than snow because driving on ice, as we all know, if we've experienced it, um, can be real treacherous and and uh somewhat unpredictable too. If you know that you've had eight or ten inches of snow everywhere and you're driving on snowpacked roads, you kind of know the consistency is gonna be the same, but the uh uh with the ice you don't quite know where it's gonna sneak up on you. And then of course, if snow is on top of ice, that's probably the worst of all possible scenarios.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I think you know, another piece of this is uh, you know, we've had days when it's super cold. So how I mean, obviously, there's less um, you know, maybe not as much driving around, you know, recon that you're doing in the morning, but how do you make a decision on some of these like frigid, you know, your polar vortex type days when it's super cold? Yeah, that's a great question.
SPEAKER_02Those are probably even more tricky than road conditions because it's a little more subjective and yeah, qualitative decision, but we have a policy. That indicates that if there are sustained wind chills of minus 40, that's sort of our unofficial benchmark. I guess kind of official because it isn't our policy. If there are gusts where you know I get to minus 35 or minus 40 for short periods of time, you know, we would take that into consideration and probably not um call school off. But there were several years ago when prior to when I came to Wizetta, the governor made the call to call school off when it was a certain temperature, and I can't remember now what it was, but um that didn't necessarily go over all that well because some of the school districts up in the by the Canadian border said we have that temperature 10 or 15 times a year. Now we've had this new standard set that we're gonna call school off when it hits 25 or 30 below wind chill. We can't do that, we're gonna be gone all the time. So those are some of the again the unique things that can happen. But I think the coldest morning I can remember driving to work is uh and I think actually that might have well, I don't think that was a day that was called off. I can't remember if we had school that day or not. I think we probably did, but by the time I got to work, my car thermometer said minus 28, and that was the air temperature, that wasn't the wind chill, yeah. So maybe the wind chill was at minus 30 or 35 or something like that. I don't know that we got up to minus 40, but um yeah, that was that was a pretty cold morning, and when the cars sat out on the lots all day and not in the garage, um it could be a pretty slow start for the cars to get the oil and the grease warmed up a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Well, we had a day earlier this year, I think it was a planning day as a maybe an at-home learning day, if I remember correctly, when it was, but you know, we sold my kids. Um and that was uh yeah, that was that was quite cool. No, we got a we're coming back to the high school and we have looks like our buildings and grounds team is uh treating the uh treating the the parking lot.
SPEAKER_02You're right. I can see some spray or chemicals of some type coming out of the back of the truck. Yeah, there we go there.
SPEAKER_00You're probably wondering who's who's driving around at uh my guess is they probably know they know uh uh Chase's car.
SPEAKER_02Probably saying, why is that guy slowing down? They're getting in my way.
SPEAKER_00I got a lot of ground to cover. Yeah, so it looks like they're you know, they're they got a big tank on the back, and I assume there's some sort of formula on the back that someone has figured out uh this is the best way. It's not just I I've noticed it's not just as simple as like we're gonna dump a bunch of salt out on the parking lot anymore. Yeah, it all contributes to make a difference. Yeah, it's five 5 13 in the morning, so yeah, our our buildings and grounds team here at the high school is they're up early too. It's not uh Chase isn't the only one up early working at this hour.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I oftentimes make it well almost every day, I make a trip around the high school on my way to my office. Just make sure everything looks in good order and good shape at our largest facility site here in the district. And and I'm always uh amazed that there are cars here. Of course, I think we have overnight presence here with some of our buildings and ground staff, but they get here bright and early and make sure that the school's ready to go when the kids show up and they really do incredible work both inside the buildings and outside.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you think of the days when you get a whole bunch of snow, you know, it's not you know what we saw today. It's it's a little more straightforward of they're in a you know a truck and dumping some sort of treatment on the on the parking lots, but you know, there's a lot of sidewalk to cover up here too. So whether it's a snowblower or shoveling, there's a lot of you know manual labor that I'm sure is especially when you get eight inches of wet snow, is not the most exciting of days for the staff.
SPEAKER_02No, it does create a lot of extra work. It's just like at home. Yeah, you know, it can be kind of adventurous, but at the same token, it creates a lot of extra work when you have your own driveway to clear off the sidewalks and and uh the same is true here, only in multiples. But we we're fortunate we have really good equipment and uh both for the sidewalk clearing and we have tremendous capability for parking lots, so we do have a lot of large parking lots, so you need some big snow pushers and movers to be able to do that efficiently and quickly, and and again, much to the kids' chagrin, our staff is second to none. And our city uh uh departments are really helpful and and extremely good strategic partners for us, so we're very appreciative to the work that they do as well.
SPEAKER_00It's a team effort. Yeah, well, and I think that equipment piece is interesting, is I obviously there's you have to prepare for large volume of snow, right? You know, and then what it would take to move that snow, plow that snow, and ultimately get school to happen, and that's I mean, that's that's an investment, right? Correct.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it is a big investment. And we need that equipment in order to you don't need it every day, but when you need it, you have to have it at your disposal. It's you know, like the county-state cities, you know, they have a lot of equipment too, that on a winter where you don't get a lot of snow, they might sit idle quite a lot of that season. In other years they're out almost every day. Yeah. Right. I think they typically budget kind of the average over a period of time. And there are years when we've had to uh just recognize that we're gonna have a little bit higher than normal snow removal costs, and other years where literally we've had next to none. If the snow comes on weekends and it's a warmer part of the year, a lot of it you know kind of takes care of itself by Monday morning when the kids show up. So uh if you get that good timing, you can save some money in snow clearing and chemicals that go onto the surfaces and things like that. Well, that's pretty much the full round. Off to my left is Meadow Ridge, and uh we could go drive through there, but I don't anticipate that lot's gonna look any different than the rest of them we've seen. I have uh a little bit of drizzle on my windshield here. The wipers are taking good care of keeping the windshield clean. Uh the temperature is 32 degrees, so it's kind of bright at that freezing point. And if I were thinking it's gonna drop to 26 or 25 by 8 a.m., I'd have a little more concern than I do knowing it's gonna stay at 32 or above uh for the duration of the day because I think probably the roads are gonna melt pretty much, even if it does turn to snow here pretty soon. I don't think we're gonna have uh any issues to be concerned about today. Yeah. And even though it's spring break, um, and I don't know what the YZ of kids might be hoping for today. Sorry, no snow today, I don't think.
SPEAKER_00Maybe next time. Maybe next time. Uh I think you know, YZ Kids is where all the fun happens anyway. So I mean I think those kids will be have a have a fun day as always on the non-school days. It's nice to be with your friends and to have some fun things lined up, I'm sure. Oh, it's now 518, so we've been out on the road for about an hour. So that's is that the typical kind of the loop takes takes about an hour, give or take. I suppose it depends on what you're driving through.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I would say probably more typically or around 30 minutes or so, I can get a pretty good feel for what's happening. And oftentimes uh I'll even try to be to my office by the 4 a.m. start of the um webinar so that I can hear directly what the latest is from there. And then I can be in communication with our transportation folks and start thinking about, although typically we have templates or drafts made of communications uh thanks to you and your colleagues in the communications department. Uh, we've gotten pretty adept at pulling up previous uh versions and fine-tuning them, but um that's when all those decisions need to be made. We like to have the decision made if and when possible by five, no later than five thirty in the morning, so that we can get communications out because literally by 5.30, we probably have some staff that are on the road for those uh why said a kids, 6 30 open times. Um we want to try to get to them before they might head out into the the weather.
SPEAKER_00Okay, well I gotta I gotta ask. This could be your, you know, I guess hopefully April 2nd, it's it's your last uh official. Um I'm not convinced you're not gonna get out of a 3 a.m. and drive around next year, even when you're retired, but I guess we'll see. So as your as your last I maybe official uh drive above mission, you know, how does it feel?
SPEAKER_02Well, as I look back on it, I really haven't minded it. It's been adventurous and kind of fun, actually. But I think not doing it next year, I'll probably be just fine.
SPEAKER_00Oh, Chase, um as much as you know, I I would prefer to be sleeping right now, I had a good time, so thanks for letting me uh ride along with you on your on your snow day adventure. You're very welcome.
SPEAKER_02Glad you enjoyed it, and uh I hope if we have any viewers that watch this, which I'm sure we will, um I hope they enjoy it as well.
SPEAKER_00All right, thanks for listening, everyone.
SPEAKER_02Thank you.