KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – Temperatures are predicted to hover around the 30-degee mark for the next week, but if they dip back down to zero again this winter, like they did last week, local officials are ready.
Kalamazoo Public Schools superintendent Dr. Darrin Slade says the state allows six snow days a year, and they used three of them last week.
What if they use them all up, and have to call another snow day?
“Normally what that means is if we use up all of our days, we have to think about extending the school year into the summer,” says Slade.
He says the decision to close schools is a team effort that involves transportation officials, educators and regional superintendents, calling it “a long process but it makes sure our students and staff are safe.”
Kalamazoo City Manager Jim Ritsema says they put their $500,000 emergency shelter fund to use for the first time last week when a cold emergency was declared.
“A hotel project, I believe there are four hotels and a 120 individuals that were able to be housed last week,” says Ritsema.
He says the initiative was a joint effort.
“Thank the Continuum of Care for their support, and the Kalamazoo Together Volunteers for the unhoused, for actually running the program.”
They only used $22,000, so funding remains available should another cold snap occur.
Last Thursday night, local volunteers participated in the annual “point in time” count of the homeless in Kalamazoo, and Toby Hanna Davies says despite packed shelters and the motel program, they still found a number of people staying outside.
“Staying in tents or in tarps, boughs of branches holding them up, or people carrying their belongings, staying awake all night,” says Davies.
The periodic counts are required to qualify for federal funding for homeless programs.
She says she was pleased to not only see homeless activists involved in the count, but officials from Kalamazoo County, the city of Kalamazoo, and the city of Portage.
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