By COLlive reporter
If the bad weather wasn’t enough to deal with on Thursday morning, there was also the confusion.
Crown Heights homes which have children learning in Associated Beth Rivkah Schools got an early morning call that classes will be taking place, despite the heavy winter storm.
Some 8 to 12 inches of snow is expected in New York City and surrounding suburbs on Thursday. The forecast calls for the snow to turn into a wintry mix or all rain in the late afternoon Thursday before changing back to snow.
The National Weather Service said an additional 2 to 5 inches could fall Thursday evening.
Being told there was school, girls of all ages and their teachers trudged off to school, braving the elements down to the buildings on both Lefferts Avenue and Crown Street.
After they got to school, Elementary School students found out they were being sent back home on the school buses.
In High School, at 8:40 am, as students were arriving, Principal Mrs. Sheindel Tiechtel made an announcement in the shul that school has been cancelled, and following davening the girls would be dismissed.
“It’s not right! You don’t do that!” one student complained. “If school is going to be cancelled, you should do it before we walk in the snow!”
All the girls who came to school will be receiving an extra late pass, they were told.
The Bnos Menachem School also announced that school is open today. However by 9:15 am, parents were told that preschool might be cancelled. One of the school’s buses reportedly got stuck in the snow and never made it to school at all.
“I don’t know what I will do if they do cancel it,” one frustrated mother told COLlive. “Once they are in school, they should at least make some sort of class for those that arrived safely.”
Shortly afterwards, the school called parents to inform them that all the students would be sent home by bus at 12:30 pm.
“There has to be a better system in the case of bad weather,” another mother said. “Decisions should be made no later than 7:30 am, to give people time to plan and time to find out.”
A winter storm warning remains in effect until 6 a.m. Friday for much of the area.
In the city, the Office of Emergency Management has issued a hazardous travel advisory and winter storm warning for Thursday and Friday.
I dont think anyone realizes the desicion BR had to make, so plx dont blame them about anything. they should only be praised for really caring about the student’s safety.
In Pittsburgh neither Yeshiva nor Hillel follows the public schools, and both schools have automated calling systems that let each household know when there is a change. It’s pretty efficient.
ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you try to keep schools open than you delay your desicion as late as you can. That the right thing to do. Yes its hard but what is better to always close right away ? People stop complaining about everything start doing something with yourself.
Thank you to the kind young man from the Jewish Children’s Museum who went beyond the call of duty and cleared with his snow blower a nice long clear path on Eastern Parkway going from Kingston Ave. all the way down to Albany Ave. Yasher Koach- Tizkeh L’mitzvos- Kol Hakovod!!
I spot MUSHKA BLUM!!!! AAHHH miss u soo much!! from the best sis!
thanks BR for canceling school!! i didnt walk out yet but thanks anyhow!
e/o showed up and there was a regular full morning of school
including the tzivos hashem web rally
there was a panic that by afternoon it would b even more unsafe to travel so they had 12:30 dismissal
Why was ot the only preschool that was closed on Friday! When every other school was open! And it eas safe!!!
WHY do little kids (or even big ones for that matter) have to go out b’mesiras nefesh in a snowstorm?? what are we trying to prove?? In manhattan, mygrandsons class had a conference call with his rebbe bec. rabbaim couldnt make it in in snowstorm! the children knew at 10.00 oclock they learn on the phone..this is the 21 century after all..its not a mitzva to mutcheh zich!!
I kept my kids home as I felt it wasn’t safe for them to go to school before it was canceled. I was not going to allow kids in a bus on such slippery roads. I didn’t let my kids that walk go as I felt it just wasn’t safe . I was glad BR closed at least they didn’t miss school. I kept my boys home too. Each parent needs to be responsible and asses the situation themselves. My high school daughter was on the way out when we got the call, she decided on her own that she… Read more »
tHEY REALLY WANTED THE GIRLS TO BE THERE TO LEARN BUT MADE THE RIGHT DECISION FOR THEIR SAFETY…
did anyone think that many of bais rivkahs teachers aren’t from CH, and realized that they couldn’t make it only after they tried?
& they make them put the phones in special bags during class…..and they already know that the girls have phones…..WHY?!?!??! can’t they call the girls’ phone’s DIRECTLY, and tell them that there is no school?! Why do they need to call the parents, and then the parents should get the message to the girls!?! Isn’t that a little backwards?
who try to stay open as much as possible- they take thair achrayus as a moisad chinuch seriously and close only when absolutely necessary.
its so easy to say ‘lets close today’.
but it takes a lot for a school to say we will remain open until no choice!’
THANK YOU oholei torah, bnos menachem and beis chaya mushka for not being so quick to close your doors at every snowfall!!
If you remember, this irresponsible behavior on the part of the city to not close public schools, even when travel is dangerous, was the brain child of former Mayor Bloomberg, who was afraid that children would be left alone at home with no heat or food as their parents had to work. In other words, according to Bloomberg, the schools had to take over for the parents, and he almost never closed the schools during his 12 years in office. Yes, we have working and struggling families in our neighborhood also, but it is a no-brainer that if it looks… Read more »
Yes, Bais rivka gave us a day off, but they told us that we have no school AFTER we got there!!! We had to wake up early, shovel, trudge to school then turn around and go strait home!!!!!
This mess is due to the Mayor not using logic- HE was saying how dangerous the morning commute will be! How could not logically lead to schools canceling? The lesson here is not to listen to the mayor! It doesn’t matter what the kids are missing, safety always comes first. Oh, and a huge thank you to may daughter’s BR teacher who had a conference call with the girls and they all davened, learned parsha etc.!
Bottom line…. Is there going to be school tomorrow?
who said im a freshie?
AS a BM parent, BM did the best they were able to during that very confusing time…dangerous weather and they felt best for parents to pick up their child for SAFETY of children and those dropping off their kids in the crazy weather, yes was safest to take back bec they didn’t know how rest of day would play out…..once they heard that was impossible for some parents to come they had teachers who were able to make it (lots were stuck home with their own kids home from school) stay till 12…at least they stayed open even if it… Read more »
for those of you who arent clear about BM having school till 12:30, well the preschool called the parents and told them to come pick up their kids at 9, the moms dropping off were turned away and told to go home..then the school decided to send out a message that there will be school until 12:30 and the kids will go home by buses.. except half the preschool parents were already called to come pick up already.. whoever couldn’t make it to pick up their preschool child earlier did indeed have a half day. I say a big Thank… Read more »
i don’t think this was an easy decision for any mosad. if public school cancels, then they all follow suit, because it is a matter of safety, even if it means (don’t laugh – it’s true) that hundreds of kids won’t learn torah or possibly daven that day. so take today, when PS was open, why would a frum school want to cancel? until ofc they realized that even PS should have cancelled.
okkk freshie. calm down, calm down.
If the NYC public schools were open then why was darling BR clossed?????
benos menachem has school all the way from pri till high. at 12.00 was early dismiss and every one was very happy about there gr8 judgment
As a principal or administrator it is a big achrayus to close a moisad chinuch. It means you are denying all of the students their daily dose of ruchniyus. You are stopping all the Torah learning that goes on daily. It’s a very big decision and should not be taken lightly. If it is at all possible to keep a Yiddishe school open, it should be done. I understand why the decision was only made in the last moment when the weather became really impossible.
We don’t HAVE to follow the Mayor.
We have to follow our sechel.
Looking out the window at 7:30 this morning it was a no-brainer that school should be canceled.
go Leah B!
i woke up 7;20 to get to school on time .I am very upset that i come to school and then!!!!! they tell me there is no school like seriosly i could have slept in!!!!!! i think they should tell us at least at 8;00
there was a beautiful day of learning in Beis Chaya Mushka. yes it was hard to get to school but all was forgotten as the girls walked in and were greeted with hot cocoa and hot breakfast (as they are everyday). the blame goes on the mayor. if the city cancels school, everyone follows.
A very happy parent
Bnos Menachem had school till 12:30 for preschool and up! pre nursery (2-3yr olds who start 9:30) canceled before they were even picked up by bus.
it doenst need to be a whole argument to c who does it first- if it just doesnt LOOK like it makes sense to have skewl then it shud be canceled! no politics with the other skewls….
but beis rivka high skewl doesnt have bus…..thats y we should NOT have anything to do with the public skewl next door that all the kids come by bus…….
C’mon high skwl! make ure own decisions!
while you are all complaining about snow, be happy tha its not rain instead. we would prefair to have snow than rain every every DAY!!!!!!!!!!!
just saying we had a great day at BM, and leanred like girls our age are meant to be doing
Go Bais RIvkah caring about are kids thank you
thats what bnos menachem did
they had school for half a day for everyone except preschool
What is everyone getting so uptight about, and yes I too work and didn’t get to go in today. If BR makes a decision to cancel school everyone goes crazy, so they made a decision to open and then realized it really wasn’t safe so they closed. End of story. They took the childrens safety as the number 1 priority. The only thing I personally did not understand is, if the high schooler girls trudged out I thought they could have stayed open even just for half day as they were there already.
Sorry you got messed up.
This type of issue becomes. doomed if you do and doomed if you don’t.
Other parents would complain that they have to go to work.
WHER SHOULD WE LEAVE OUR KIDS>
VERY irresponsible. At least they understood to have the girls daven…..
Totally agree!!!
Our school has an automated message that goes out to each household. The decision is reached at 6;30 in the morning and that is followed by phone calls soon after.
For posting pics of my block. Now i know i can go shopping @ koshertown. Thanks Shimmy for snowblowing!!!
As for those that trudged out to school. Poor things. But ya never know what your davening all together accomplished on high.
No matter what this was irresponsible!!!!!
I dropped my daughter and got on a train to work Think about that! I don’t have family like most of you in crown Heights to pick up my daughter they are unorganized!
will there be school Friday!??!?!?!
we went to school to c that no teachers showed up and were dismissed early!!!
so why did we have to go to school in the first place????
BS”D all of the critics are not considering the preciousness to Hashem and the Rebbe of the voice of Torah of children. That is why it is not such as light or easy decision to cancel school
Kudos to Lamplighters for cancelling school before it started!
the schools principals should take their bus drivers opnion very seriously!
High school girls are not the issue here. The preschool abd younger elementry students are the ones who were really affected. Todays weather was no surprise, it was predicted days ago. Waiting till the last minute to make a decision was wrong and irresponsible
so gld my daughter at least davened shachris!
I got a call at a quarter to ten to come pick up my daughter.Then I get a call few min later everyone will be coming home by bus. ThankG-d they sent them home by bus.But there should be a clear answer no later than 7:30!
Mrs. Teichtel said she was up since 5:00 A.M trying to figure out wat to do…why didn’t she just cancel skewl?!!?!?!!?!?!
Vus men tsu? Dus iz rusland?
hi. we need to put ourselves in the shoes of the ones making the decisions. before 8 it really didn’t look bad. just as it became bad, was when we had to leave for school.
aren’t you happy YOU were not the one to have to make that last second decision? should we/shouldn’t we…please understand how difficult it was for them. either way, there would be difficulties.
Al todin..ad shetagiya limkomom.
Seriously everyone calm down. I walked 30 min to BRHS and found out school was canceled while was walking. We all davened and then i walked 25 minutes home. The thing that came out of this was that I davened, saw my friends, enjoyed the snow, and had a good laugh. Not everything has to be negative. I’m just so impressed that 90% of Bais Rivkah students showed up. Everyone stop being dramatic about it. Everyone is high school is mature enough to realize that no one did this intentionally. Thank you Bais Rivkah principals for handling this situation so… Read more »
we where sent home at 9:30
BR made the right decision, albeit a little late. Not sure why the decision couldn’t be made an hour earlier though, when I looked out the window at 7:30 it already looked bad. And to comment #11 that’s a very generalized statement to make, I don’t work and have no problem if school is cancelled if that’s what’s safest for the children (I have even kept them home in the past on snow days when I felt the school was in the wrong for not canceling). I just feel bad for the mothers who have to work and the difficulties… Read more »
All the girls who came to school will be receiving an extra late pass, they were told.
Well now, that makes EVERYTHING alright.
Go Leah B!! An amazing granddaughter!
Go BRHS!! We totally rock!!
Thank u br for caring about the safety of your students and teachers!
not sure why br deserves any thank you at all. they inconvenienced many people with their disorganization. there were moms who went to work after putting their kids on the busses only to have to rush home to meet them as they returned.
It’s usually the mothers that don’t work that complain when school gets canceled …
Thank you bais rivka for doing the right thing
Fistly,there was no call made from the school saying that the school is open.Yes, if you called the school there was a recorded message that school is open. The blame should go to the mayor for not cancelling school not Bais Rivkah since B R. always follows the Public Schools. When I listened to the radio this morning even the guy reporting the weather thought it ridiculous having children go out and wait for the buses.The mayor said its dangerous to be out on the road,so why isnt it dangerous for kids to go out and wait for the buses.… Read more »
Yes, the call came in late, however it was a smart decision. The administration had in mind the safety of all their students!
Thank you Bis Rivkah for putting our children’s safety first!! Bais Rivkah is the only school who has made the right decision in crown heights even if it came in late. Thank you!!
yes
both beis chaya mushka and oholei torah have school
k it was not so bad that i found out after i got to Beis Rivkah High School that there were no school- and btw the principal only found out a few mins after school started.
at least i and so many other girls got up early to daven. go br!
BS”D Hopefully the mayor left town for warmer weather and now the great City of NY remains in competent hands not to mention non socialist hands.
It was the same thing with Oholie Torah, the call in number stated that all schools were open. Then my wife gets a call from the teacher at 9:00, that school is canceled! very unprofessional!!
kol hakavod Shloime Yunik for walking your daughter safely to school in the snow!
wondering?
Thank you Bais Rivka for trying to accommodate working parents. And thank you for the guts to call school off at the last minute when you realized how unsafe conditions were becoming.