BURRILLVILLE – While many districts in Rhode Island cancelled classes through the end of the week following a storm that dumped more than two feet of snow on the region, Burrillville schools were up and running Thursday morning, with students finally returning from an extended winter break.
On Thursday morning, a listing of school closings published by RI Broadcasters showed 40 districts in Rhode Island that had either cancelled classes or moved to distance learning for the day. Many districts had also made the decision for Friday, Feb. 27, putting hundreds of Rhode Island students on track for a two week winter break.
“To my knowledge, Burrillville and Smithfield are the only school districts that returned to normal operations today,” Supt. Michael Sollitto told NRI NOW.
Sollitto said he made the decision after consulting with Burrillville Department of Public Works Director Jeffrey McCormick and district Transportation Manager Raelene Hopkins.
“Both assured me that things were in good shape to reopen,” Sollitto said, noting that before making the final decision, he drove to each of the town’s five public school buildings, as well as some of the surrounding neighborhood streets to assess things.
“All appeared to be ready to go,” he said. “Finally, we consulted with the school principals to make sure that we were prepared for students and staff to safely return.”
All reportedly went smoothly Thursday morning with buses, students, and staff arriving as expected.
Emergency Management Director Michael Gingell verified that he has heard of no troubles with school transportation following the massive effort to clean up town roadways.
“Everything went well this morning,” Gingell said.
Town Manager Michael Wood agreed, crediting DPW, public safety personnel and other town staff for working long hours to stay on top of the storm and respond to health and safety-related incidents.
“All the town’s public safety agencies worked well together,” Wood said.
The town manager noted that DPW would be working overnight on Thursday to clean up the town’s villages and sidewalks.
It hasn’t been easy, he said.
“We had four of our plow trucks go down with different types of mechanical failures, but we are working to get those back into service ASAP,” said Wood.
To help with the continued effort, Wood noted that residents should move all trash collection bins out of the street to avoid clashes with plows or unintended spills and litter. Rubbish collection, he noted, had to be cancelled for the week because the town’s contractor was unable to provide service.
“This is one of the unintended consequences of a storm of this magnitude,” Wood said. “It is very difficult for our drivers to work around containers that are close to or in the street.”
Sollitto also thanked DPW, along with school maintenance staff and custodians, and bus company DATTCO for the hard work that allowed students to return to classrooms after just three extra days of break. Students were originally set to return on Monday, Feb. 23, but the town was blanketed with an estimated 25 inches of the white stuff in a record-breaking storm from Sunday into Monday.
“It was a monumental effort,” Sollitto said.
Wood noted it is no coincidence that Burrillville is among the first towns in Rhode Island to be back up and running.
“Townwide, the various public safety agencies and staff/employees know how to respond to this type of emergency, and probably better than most, if not all, RI cities and towns,” Wood said. “They are the best.”
Town Council President Don Fox said he was not surprised by the efficient clean up effort.
“Our DPW team performs like this for every snow event,” Fox said. “Burrillville is one of the best organized and managed towns in our state.”
Thank you to all for your hard work!!