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| Tuesday, Jan 15 2008 9:25 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jan 16 2008 11:55 AM
This science that goes into the calling of a school fog delay, it's not rocket science.
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What you need is an alarm clock, a reliable vehicle and an affinity for pea soup.
And on a day like Tuesday, the science was up at 4 a.m. driving county streets and roads to see how bad the fog was. The end result was delays of mostly two hours for all Bakersfield schools, the first delay day in the city in more than two years.
"The science is pretty consistent throughout the districts, but everybody has to call their own shot," said Paul Linder, director of transportation for the Kern Superintendent of Schools, which makes delay calls for only special education students but orchestrates the dissemination of fog delay information via its "AlertLine" feature on its Web site.
"I have spotters all over and if we suspect fog is going to be an issue we make contacts with all these folks, and then based on information we get from them after being out on the roads, we make an informed decision," Linder said.
Most elementary districts rely on spotters in the field, but because it has to cover 3,200 square miles, the Kern High School District relies on reports from California Highway Patrol, employees and the Kern Superintendent of Schools.
"We're also watching the weather report, looking at temperature and dew point," said Bud Bankston, KHSD's director of transportation. "That's a key part of it."
Rio Bravo-Greeley, Rosedale and several other districts in severely dense fog regions typically delay the start of school three hours, while Panama-Buena Vista, Greenfield, Bakersfield City and Standard are among districts keeping schools open during dense foggy mornings and only delaying bus service.
"We know for parents who want their kids in school or don't have day care for those two hours, they know it's safe at school," said Gerrie Kincaid, an assistant superintendent with the Panama-Buena Vista School District. "We let parents make the call on whether or not they want to bring their kids to school."
Teachers, she said, are required to be at school to teach during bus delay hours.
Once a district makes the decision to delay, and alert is quickly posted on AlertLine (alertline.kern.org) from where the media gets its information. Alerts are posted as early as 5:30 a.m.
Still, some parents might not be getting the message, or just can't miss work by staying home with their kids. A spokesman for KHSD could not confirm reports that dozens of kids were waiting outside at Bakersfield High Tuesday morning while the school was in a fog delay. Spokesman John Teves did say, however, that students arriving during a fog delay may wait out the delay inside various campus buildings.
They might have been troubling on Tuesday, but fog delay has not been a big issue for Bakersfield schools since there were 11 widespread fog delays during the 2002-03 school year. There have since been only seven widespread delays affecting Bakersfield schools -- slightly more in Shafter, Wasco, McFarland areas and Belridge.
Weather delays, 2000-01 to present
23 Days of fog delays in greater Bakersfield* area.
102 Delays or closures due to ice, snow or fire in El Tejon School District.
30 Delays or closures for snow and ice in Tehachapi and fog delays in Belridge, both second most after El Tejon.
11 Days of widespread delays in Bakersfield area in 2002-03 alone.
Widespread fog delays by years in greater Bakersfield
3 in 2000-01
2 in 2001-02
11 in 2002-03
2 in 2003-04
2 in 2004-05
2 in 2005-06
0 in 2006-07
1 in 2007-08
(*) Greater Bakersfield includes, in most instances, all Bakersfield-area high schools and elementary school districts; all Shafter, Wasco, Delano and McFarland schools; Lost Hills and Elk Hills schools as well as Richland, Pond, Semitropic and Standard.
Source: alertline.kern.org