Two Baltimore City schools closed today due to power outages caused by Tuesday night’s heavy storms, with the full district operating on a two-hour delay.
Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and Western High School students found out about the cancellation around 9 a.m., while some were already commuting.
These adjustments come after district officials decided to keep schools open on Tuesday, despite neighboring districts like Baltimore County shutting down for the day.
Camille Coffey, a senior at Polytechnic, said the two-hour delay felt “too little too late” after attending classes, and traveling home, in the storms.
“We were just sort of waiting for an announcement of a shutdown, and we were watching the weather get worse and worse,” she said. “And it just never came.”
Commuting home was a “disaster,” Coffey said. Buses were rerouted and delayed because of traffic, making trips take much longer.
“I have to walk to get picked up. So I got pretty soaked. And I know a lot of students who walk also got pretty soaked,” she said. “And then also, students who drive were stuck in traffic. So it was a pretty big mess trying to get home.”
Sherry Christian, media relations manager for Baltimore City Public Schools, said district leaders “made the right call” in keeping students in classes on Tuesday.
“Our goal is to keep students in class for a full day of instruction, if we can do so safely,” Christian said.
City schools officials make decisions about school cancellations based on forecasts, and reports from staff who drive around the city monitoring road and building conditions. They also check to make sure public transportation is up and running.
“We can’t control what the public transportation does,” Christian said. “We also rely on the patience of folks to understand that whenever you have inclement weather, things are going to be affected. And one of those is perhaps the schedule of public transportation.”
Coffey said students often feel like the district is “nervous to prematurely cancel” classes and school activities.
“We've had instances in the past where school got canceled and the weather turned out fine. And so it was kind of pointless,” Coffey said. “But I would have preferred them to act with an overabundance of caution, rather than be nervous about canceling schools. Because clearly, in this instance, it didn't work out well at all.”
Christian said she had not received any updates about the electricity in Western High School and Baltimore Polytechnic Institute as of early Wednesday afternoon. The district is waiting to hear back from Baltimore Gas and Electric before making decisions about school operations tomorrow.
In the meantime, Coffey said whether students have virtual class work seems to be up to teacher preference.
“I know some students have already gotten assignments from teachers,” she said. “But personally, I haven’t heard anything from the teachers I was supposed to have today.”
