How Cicilline’s Mismanagement of Snowstorm As Mayor of Providence Changed School Cancelation Policy
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Congressman David Cicilline will be leaving public office shortly for the nonprofit sector.
His lasting legacy might not be what he did (or didn’t) achieve in Washington, D.C.
It very well could be the snowstorm in 2007 that left hundreds of children stuck on school buses in Providence and exposed a complete breakdown of leadership at City Hall while he was Mayor.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTMoreover, it changed school cancellation policy forever.
When Providence schools let out early on December 13, 2007, a lack of communication among top city officials left children stranded in a quick-falling snowstorm — and families unaware of where students even were as night fell.
It was an event that saw the city’s emergency chief fired and the Deputy Superintendent suspended.
Now, when snow is in the forecast, schools are canceled in advance and almost immediately.
And across the city, for working families — especially for those who don’t have the luxury of working remotely — childcare becomes once again an issue for parents and caregivers.
This Week's Snow
On Monday morning, the National Weather Service predicted four-to-seven inches of snow to fall overnight in Rhode Island
By Monday afternoon, Providence public schools announced they would be closed on Tuesday.
Fewer than three inches of snow had fallen by 7 A.M. on Tuesday morning in Providence, and roads were plowed in most places down to the pavement.
2007 Storm and Aftermath
“Promising that students will never be stranded again, Mayor David N. Cicilline yesterday fired the city's director of emergency management and suspended for 30 days the School Department's deputy superintendent of operations,” reported the Providence Journal on December 17, 2007.
(Editor’s Note: GoLocal was founded in 2010 and thus did not report on the event).
“Looking upset, Cicilline took full responsibility for the complete breakdown in communications between virtually every city department during the Dec. 13 storm, which left hundreds of young children stuck on school buses or stranded at schools well into the night, after schools closed two hours early, while their parents fretted over where they were,” the Journal continued.
"The responsibility rests with the mayor of the city," Cicilline said. "I'm kicking myself that there were over 100 schoolchildren stranded on school buses."
Cicilline fired emergency management director Leo Messier for “failing to realize that students were stranded and failing to organize a proper response once he did.”
"There was a total breakdown in communication from the bottom up," the mayor said. "There were communication gaps between First Student and the schools, the schools and the superintendent. This was a system that failed."
According to the article, a number of policies were put in place by the Cicilline administration, including the establishment of a communications plan that required parents to be called every hour in the event of substantial bus delays, and the establishment of an “emergency operations cabinet” to be activated “whenever schoolchildren are being bused during extreme weather and dangerous driving conditions.”
The lasting legacy, however, appears to be more far-reaching.
The aftermath of that 2007 snowstorm has seen one thing from administrators and officials — never again do they want to be blamed or fired for not doing their jobs.
And the easiest way to do that?
Just cancel school -- no matter the cost to students and families.
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