WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB)- It was the worst night of his career, said West Seneca Superintendent Dr. Mark Crawford, recalling last Thursday’s storm.
“The confusion, the worry, I mean I felt all of that,” said Crawford.
More than a foot of snow fell in West Seneca that night. Changing conditions quickly created problems.
“All of those offices being let out downtown, people flooding the south towns and then I find out a tractor trailer jackknifed, forcing everyone to West Seneca,” explained Crawford.
Gridlock kept buses of children stuck on the road until after 9:00 p.m.
“It was several hours of knowing my boy was on a bus somewhere, no one could tell us where,” said Peter Vicoria, who has two children in West Seneca schools.
He told News 4 one of his children made it home before the storm worsened. His youngest child, however, was stuck on a bus in traffic until 7:00 p.m., when Vicoria found the bus and picked up his son.
He said communication could’ve been better.
“I just wanted to know where my boy was, make sure that he was okay,” said Vicoria.
Superintendent Crawford addressed the issue at a packed Board of Education meeting Monday night. He told parents and teachers that the district plans to double or quadruple resources to stay in touch with parents.
“Increasing the capacity of individual school, that may be housing kids, to respond to multiple phone calls coming in,” said Crawford. “We were working with two or three phones in each office and it was just inadequate.”
He also said they are looking at installing GPS units in each bus so they know where the buses are at all times.
Crawford explained students were not sent home early from school on Thursday because not all parents were home. West Seneca Police Chief Daniel Denz told the crowd they were in constant contact with the school district.
The district and teachers were also applauded at the meeting for taking good care of the students.
More than 500 students had to stay at West Elementary and Allendale Elementary until the early morning hours on Thursday.
“We knew we were in for the long run, whatever it took we were going to stay there,” said Sharon Wright, a 5th grade teacher at West Elementary.
She told News 4 the children played tag and basketball, ate pizza, and were able to lay down on mats to watch a movie.
“We made the best of it, we actually kind of bonded and it was actually a kind of neat thing to bond with the kids on a different level,” said Wright.
The West Elementary PTA plans to hold a lunch for the school’s staff on Wednesday to thank them for taking such good care of their children while they were stuck at school.
