PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — While the majority of school districts across Rhode Island opted to dismiss students and staff early during Tuesday’s storm, Providence Public Schools decided to stay open for the full day.
Providence was one of the only districts to not issue an early dismissal as a wintry mix caused slippery travel conditions and significant traffic backups statewide.
The district’s spokeswoman, Laura Hart, said while there were a large number of delays in student drop-offs due to the conditions, she said it would’ve been even more difficult if there was an early dismissal.
“Due to the large size of its student population and the volume of traffic throughout the city, early dismissal poses unique challenges for Providence Schools and can actually cause or worsen gridlock conditions,” Hart explained. “We did not want to create a situation where families were unable to get to bus stops in time for student drop-off.”
The school district did, however, cancel after-school activities for Tuesday due to the storm.
Yadira Arroyo has two children in the Providence school system and said she was disappointed Providence did not issue an early dismissal.
“They could have done dismissals seeing that the other areas did do that, just to prevent this from happening for other kids,” she said. “Since they didn’t call it, I had to make the choice upon myself to say, ‘OK, around 12 o’clock I’m going to go during my lunch break and pick up the kids.'”
She said on her way to pick them up road conditions were deteriorating rapidly.
“It took me an hour and 13 minutes to go 13 minutes away to my son’s school. It was really hectic,” she said. “A lot of spinouts in that commute alone.”
Meanwhile, a bus carrying private school children was involved in a minor accident Tuesday afternoon after the driver said a car slid into the side of the bus at the intersection of Charles and Ledge Streets.
He tells Eyewitness News no one was injured in the crash and the bus wasn’t damaged, though the car sustained some minor damage to its front bumper.
The mix of snow, sleet and rain slowed traffic to a crawl across the state during the height of the storm. Between 1-9 p.m., the Rhode Island State Police said they responded to 34 weather-related crashes and several dozen disabled vehicles.
Eyewitness News reached out to Mayor Jorge Elorza’s office for comment but a spokesperson said he was not available for an interview.
