Sitting in a Cleveland Heights coffee shop, yesterday, Jessica Komp says she was flooded with calls from desperate parents the night before, looking for someone to babysit their kids, but she was already booked.
JESSICA KOMP: I work for a lot of families in Shaker so they are always texting me or calling me frantically looking for people to work during the day when they have snow days, because they have jobs and they can't get people to work for them and stuff, and I felt bad because I had to say no to all of them.
From a superintendent's point of view, making the decision to close schools can be a no win situation. David James, who heads the Akron School District, has fielded his share of calls from angry parents.
DAVID JAMES: It's never a good decision --- 50% of the people are happy, and 50% of the people are mad, for one reason or another. So, I don't even worry about that. We just stick to the criteria to making sure that our kids and staff are safe, and just go from there.
Tony Wesley didn't have the luxury of a babysitter, and we found him in a chilly parking lot, yesterday, shepherding a trio of 7-year-old girls into the car after a day of fast food indulgence.
GIRLS: We had ice cream! And french fries!
Wesley said, he was a bit perplexed sometimes about the criteria school districts use to shut down. But, he added, the inconvenience of taking a day off of work was more than balanced for him, Tuesday, by having a rare "Dad day"
TONY WESLEY: I'm delighted to have a day with my daughter and her friends. That really is true.
