2 and a half

Snow day phone call follow up

John Duke — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 21:33:55 -0700

Quick update on the snow day phone call drama. The school district sent out the following email update this evening. If you don't care to read it through, the highlights are:

- They have received over 1,000 emails thus far from parents and staff

- Most people don't like getting phone calls at 4:20am (surprise), except for the school staff

- You can "opt out" of the phone call in the future

I like the Hotline much idea better because it puts the control in my hands, not theirs. Then again, this is Boulder, which didn't get the name People's Republic for nothing.

Who knew snow days were so controversial?

February 6, 2012

Dear BVSD Families and Staff,

Since our communication to all families and staff about the 4:20 AM snow closure call last Friday (2/3) afternoon, BVSD Communications has received more than 1,000 emails from parents and staff. We are still reading through each message but we have seen some clear trends.

A majority of BVSD parents do not want a call along with an email notice although a sizable minority of parents either wrote that they liked the call, did not mind getting the call, or liked the call but wanted it later.

A strong majority of staff liked the call with many liking it at 4:20 AM.

At this point, BVSD Communications is thinking that:

Calls will continue to BVSD staff as soon as BVSD Communications is notified of a closure or 5:00 AM whichever is later (PLEASE NOTE: Most staff who responded noted that 5:30 AM was too late for them.)

BVSD Communications will compile a list of all households which do not list an email contact with BVSD and add those families to the call list. Any household without Internet access that prefers not to have a call may have their number removed from the call list by phoning BVSD Communications.

BVSD Communications will work with BVSD Information Technology (IT) this week to see what options are available in our message system to accommodate those parents who do wish to receive a call while still respecting the wishes of the majority of parents who apparently do not want to be phone called.

Again, we will follow up with what we hope is a final plan by next Monday (2/13).

BVSD Communications

Snow day and the 4:30am phone call

John Duke — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:38:57 -0700

This past Friday as we all slumbered peacefully in our beds, a 4:30am phone call jolted me awake. I'm a light sleeper so that tends to happen for me for noises that are more faint, but usually a phone call at that time of day means one of two things - your friend who lives in a very different time zone has no idea what time it is for you, or generally bad news.

I didn't answer the call in time, but since I was awake I checked my email on my phone as I often do in the middle of the night for no real reason. One of the emails in my inbox announced that Audrey's school was canceled due to lots of snow. I put two and two together and figured that was the reason for the call, but at 4:30am? Then I thought, snow day for Audrey! Maybe that means work will get canceled too!

For the next two hours I drifted in and out of sleep, restless for an email from work to show up. But one never arrived. Clearly my employer has a tougher standard for snow days than the Boulder Valley School District.

The storm delivered a total of 23" of snow to Boulder by the time it was done the following day, which is a bunch for a mid-winter storm, but I made it to work fine. I also had a dentist appoint that afternoon that I didn't want to cancel because I'd already had to move it once.

Turns out that people at the dentist were talking about the 4:30am phone call too, and my appointment was a few towns away from Boulder. You know people were irritated by it if they're talking about it at the dentist. I chimed in to say I got the call too and didn't appreciate it much.

Then, around 5pm, I got the following note from the person in charge of communications with parents and others associated with the school district:

February 3, 2012

Dear BVSD Families and Staff,

I am writing to personally apologize to each of you who were jarred awake (sometimes more than once) by a programmed telephone message between 4:20 and 4:45 AM this morning (2/3) announcing today’s BVSD snow closure. The fault lies in me not directing that the phone call be delayed for at least an hour which is possible with our SchoolMessenger system. As a result of my error, the calls began going out the same time (4:20 AM) as the emails and the text messages and tweets for those who subscribe to BVSD text messaging and BVSD Twitter. I assure you that will not happen again.

BVSD is also re-examining whether to have a phone call at all. The rationale for an early call is that there are hundreds of staff members, especially in operations, who must leave home well before 6:00 AM to be at their BVSD job. In addition, many of our mountain area and open enrollment families need information before 6:00 AM and their Internet access is not always reliable. A small but significant portion of our community does not have Internet access in their home. That stated, the superintendent and I are going to explore other options such a possible message hotline for those without Internet access to call into. BVSD Communications will inform you through follow up email on Monday (2/6) what we plan to do including possibly replacing the need for a phone call for families and staff members.

Sincerely,

Briggs Gamblin

Director of Communications

My reactions to this letter are as follows:

- I like how he took responsibility and owned the problem. That's good.

- The fact that a phone call still would have occured an hour later is not a better outcome. That's still 5:30am, a time during which most people still don't want to get phone calls.

- Some people received multiple phone calls!? Maybe those were the people at the dentist.

- I don't know what "small but significant portion of our community" means. Small means small, and signficant to me means big. They are words that oppose each other. There can't be more than a small percentage of homes without Internet service, and I assume he means to say that those people are just as important as those who do have Internet service. (Whoever those people are, though, they need to get Internet service.)

- The fact that they are going to debate whether to keep a call in place is beyond me. When I grew up we didn't get a call. We sat in front of the TV at 7am and a ticker tape on the local news channel told us whether it was a snow day or not. Or, maybe you had a sneaking suspion it was a snow day because 3 feet of snow were sitting on the ground, and you called the school directly. In today's day and age, with Internet, phone and email, there is zero reason for a phone call, whether it's at 4:30am or 7:30am. Set up the hotline for the technically disadvantaged and problem solved.

iPhone Typepad app

John Duke — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:38:18 -0700

I just downloaded the Typepad iPhone app, hoping it will encourage me to post more snippets here and there. Yes, I know it's been out for a long time. And yes, it is horrible.

Sell it back to Santa?

John Duke — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:27:23 -0700

"I want to sell it back to Santa." - A tired little girl named Grace after opening up an early Christmas gift

My reactions:
- Santa hasn't come yet (it was an early present), so what gives?
- Does she know mom & dad are Santa? She's only 3 so that would be amazing.
- Santa probably doesn't take returns because the elves would get pissed. Although maybe at a 50% discount.

Butter and the armoire

John Duke — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:37:56 -0700

This is f-ing gross.

Here's a normal looking doll house armoire. Something that might have, say, doll clothing in it, or perhaps jewels or some other small item my girls like to hoard.

Open sesame and... a bar of butter. Not just any butter, but organic unsalted butter - the kind that, you know, little girls 3 years of age like to eat apparently. Oh, and keep in their armoires.

Clearly it was a big bite. Put some in your armoire today.

Elf on the shelf redux

John Duke — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:17:34 -0700

Merry Christmas. The elf is back, of course - Sammy's been hanging around our house since about Thanksgiving although I've been remiss about posting his general whereabouts. He was also hanging with us in 2009 and 2010.

Today he made it up on to one of the wall sconces along our stairwell. I didn't get to witness the morning ritual of the girls finding him because I had to leave at an early hour for work (the pic is around 5AM), but it had to be pretty easy today. He's right there as you come down the stairs, smiling with his same old cherub-like expression.

Since it's our third season of doing this he's pretty much family now. In fact, Audrey counts him as a family member and claims that if you include Sammy, Barry and the four hermit crabs (the sex of whom is totally unidentifiable in my view), males might actually outnumber females in the household now.

Typing

John Duke — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 09:32:51 -0700

Audrey busted this out on my laptop this morning. Ok, ok, I helped her with the 'y' in 'my' and the 'o' in 'favorite.' You've got to cut her some slack - she's 5.

I remember when it was fun to spell the word 'Mississippi' too.

Audrey's recipe for making Nerds

John Duke — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:18:19 -0700

Get some warmed up ice

Sprinkle some sugar on top

Cover them with colored icing

Add lemon juice (for the sour taste on the outside)

Put them in a package

Sell them.

What whiteboards are really meant for

John Duke — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 18:44:52 -0700

Barry

John Duke — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:44:56 -0700