Icy start to the school year in Kent

Facebook's "You Know You're From Kent If/When" page lit up Jan. 5, when residents complained about the school district's response — or lack thereof — to the New Year's Eve snowstorm that left the parking lot a wintry mess.

"Roosevelt and Stanton are the same, just a full road of snow and ice," one person commented. "Biggest problem with that is you have how many brand new drivers trying to make it through that… I do feel like clearing and salting the roads/school property is absolutely an area of opportunity for KCSD."

The Portager reached out to a half-dozen people who posted complaints on social media, but none of them responded to requests for personal comment. [Editor's note: The person who posted the initial complaint on Facebook is the reporter's husband, but 15 others also replied agreeing with the post.]

Long story short, no one was available to man the plows until Monday morning, Kent City School District Director of Business Services Jim Soyars told The Portager.

New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day being holidays, any snow removal was put off until Jan. 2 at the earliest. But many of the district’s maintenance employees were off on scheduled vacation that day, leaving only a skeleton crew, he said.

In the future, district Director of Property Services Scott Miller will call people in over the weekend, Soyars said, admitting in hindsight that the district should have done just that.

“This came at the worst time,” he said. “The thought was if we could get people in early on Monday, then we would be fine.”

Soyars said the school district’s maintenance crew arrived for work at 4 a.m. Jan. 5, ready to plow and distribute salt. He told The Portager he personally drove the grounds at about 5 a.m. that morning and saw that the jobs were being done.

“I can tell you that I visually saw our plow trucks out, and all of our guys were out in plow trucks this morning, and then we had somebody go through with our dump truck and dump salt. I think I got one call from somebody that was saying that it was a little icy over by Davey, but I haven't received any other calls or complaints,” Soyars said.

Soyars said he spoke with building principals at all six Kent schools and learned that Stanton and Roosevelt High School were also “a little bit messy.” None of the building heads or the high school resource officer reported complaints being phoned in or any other serious problems, he said.

Instead of posting complaints on social media, Soyars said people could get results by contacting his office at business@kentschools.net or by calling 330-676-7650.