Snow Schools Closed Berkshire

'I slept in snow'

"I slept outside through two winters without a tent in the snow."

Juley Howard was 16 and came from a "conservative family".

Attending a girls' grammar school in Rugby, Warwickshire, she was doing well studying for her A-levels - until she went on a day's protest trip to RAF Greenham Common in 1983.

"I felt very strongly that nuclear weapons represented everything that was evil in the world and are a complete degeneration of humanity," said Ms Howard, now 44.

"Beforehand I thought the women were just a load of scruffy dossers and were hijacking a serious campaign.

"But when I went there I felt the energy of that demonstration and saw the physical contrast of the women on one side of the wire and soldiers on the other side of the wire.

"I completely changed my attitude."

Over the next few months Ms Howard became more involved with the camp, which was set up on 5 September 1981 by the Welsh group Women For Life on Earth.

They were against the decision to site 96 cruise nuclear missiles at the US air base.

Over the next few years tens of thousands of women would join the protest, including Ms Howard who transferred her A-level studies to a college in nearby Newbury.

However, Ms Howard found it hard to concentrate on school work, as living at the camp was a "physical struggle".

"We were evicted four or five times a week, bailiffs came and cleared everyone off the land," she said.

"We were doing direct action, breaking into the base, generally annoying the military and trying to disrupt their activity.

"Sometimes the police would arrest you and just dump you miles away and you'd have to walk 10 miles to get back again."

She described the living conditions as poor and physically demanding. Food was cooked on camp-fires and shelter was limited.

3 schools cancel class after Irene - North Adams Transcript

Tuesday August 30, 2011

Three North Berkshire schools did the unfathomable on Monday -- canceled classes in August.

Gabriel Abbott Memorial School in Florida was set to start its first day of classes in the new school year Monday, while Berkshire Arts & Technology Charter Public School in Adams was to start its second week of school. Clarksburg Elementary School officials had planned on spending Monday getting ready for the first day of school today.

But Tropical Storm Irene’s rain and wind, which subsequently created flooding, debris, property damage and hazardous road conditions, prompted each of these schools to cancel classes for one or more "storm days."

"We have a standard protocol for calling a snow day, but closing in August is a different decision-making process," said Julia Bowen, executive director of the BArT school. "It was a trickier situation because even on Sunday at 5 p.m., though it was still raining, we knew it was going to be beautiful out on Monday.

"As I was watching the news and saw the pictures online, I got the sense that roads were going to be potentially trickier to navigate, something that would not only impact students and families, but also faculty and our buses. I figured we were probably going to see low attendance, which is not as effective a school day," Bowen said.

Jon Lev, superintendent of the North Berkshire School Union, which includes Gabriel Abbott, Clarksburg and Savoy schools, rearranged the start of the school year.

Savoy will start classes today on a full-day schedule. Clarksburg will have teachers report today and the students will start school Wednesday with a full-day schedule. Gabriel Abbott won’t start classes until Thursday.

"A number of changes, but [we’re] trying to deal with the problems in each town and the towns where teachers live also. I hope this will work for everyone," Lev said.

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