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Election Day is always a hectic day, especially when it comes time to coordinate voting with school traffic.
In some communities, public schools opt to close on Election Day for various reasons including safety and ease of access to the polls.
Over in Burlington, for example, the entire district closes on Election Day.
Here in Newton, 16 of the city's 26 polling locations are public schools, all of which stay open during Election Day.
Woburn Public Schools stay open as well, but after Sen. Scott Brown stopped by Woburn's Reeves Elementary School yesterday, some parents took to Facebook to express their concern about safety of students on Election Day.
Tell us how you feel: Should Newton schools close during the election? Or should the city keep students in schools and use it as a teachable moment? Tell us in the comments below.
MARASH GIRL
6:34 am on Thursday, November 8, 2012
Close the schools and lose a perfect teaching moment.
Teri DeMarco
7:13 am on Thursday, November 8, 2012
No freakin' way. I like to vote sans my kids. There was more teaching happening during the days leading up to this event in school than they got at home (we had a more biased view of the candidates) I love that they get to see the action in progress and i want my kids in school as much as possible.
Stephanie
9:01 am on Thursday, November 8, 2012
NO! I can take my kids before or after . . . . but the WHOLE day off. . . . some families in Newton have BOTH parents working. . . . . just another day that I have to scramble to care for my kids. . . . .
khluvr621
12:08 pm on Thursday, November 8, 2012
The city then should find other ways and places for the people to vote. Even parking spaces on school property should be 'claimed' and used primarily for the faculty/staff, students, and other educational resources at all times, not for the convenience to vote; despite it might take a few minutes to however long the line is. There should never be an entire day away from school for the kids just to accommodate non-educational voting, etc because it's on the property.
Kelly
7:45 am on Thursday, November 15, 2012
Absolutly NO!! The voting should not be in the schools - put in city hall and other public buildings so there are not strangers walking in and out of schools all day. The additional traffic and parking issues also concern me. At our school they drive down a fire lane ( which is otherwise driven on during school hours) to get to handicap parking spaces or to the back lot. Kids do not expect cars to be in the fire lane and it is an accident waiting to happen. The kids are out of school more than they are is as it is.