Some people say they’ll decide whether to carry an umbrella if it happens to be raining when they walk out the front door.

That’s an acceptable protocol — though it doesn’t address what happens if the rain begins at lunchtime — for the typical person, responsible only for himself.

If you’re running a school district the size of Pittsburgh Public Schools with some 23,500 students, you’ve got to have a plan.

Some students and parents were frosted Feb. 20 when the school district opted not to delay or cancel school yet weather conditions were bad enough to result in thousands of absentees.

Students reported lengthy waits at bus stops, only to realize that their bus wasn’t coming.

PPS was among a handful of area districts that didn’t close or delay the start of classes that Wednesday. Many that did announced the decisions the evening before. Why did PPS plow through?

Because officials waited until it was too late to do anything. Some buses already were out and transporting students Wednesday before snow began falling at about 5:45 a.m. Student commutes begin as early as 5 a.m., the district said.

March is an unpredictable month. Winter could exact another wallop before spring bursts. District officials should do a post-mortem on what went wrong.

While good things may come to those who wait, not so much when you’re talking about the weather.

It’s better to call a delay than to have students waiting in inclement weather at potentially icy bus stops. PPS should establish a best-practices protocol for calling delays and cancelations. Ideally, the district would make its decision by 11:30 p.m. the preceding evening. This benefits everyone. Kids will know if they can sleep in. Parents will know if they need to round up care or make alternate arrangements at work.

First Published: March 7, 2019, 12:00 p.m.