I am looking at safety. I am not looking at the clock.

When we reached a point in midday on Friday, when the buses were ready to go, and there was a break in the bad weather, I made the decision to let them go home. That's when I made the phone calls to the parents to let them know.

We've already set aside money for recruiting. We've been talking to principals for several years about going to job fairs and connecting with the colleges. Not all teachers will be brand new; we want to lure experienced ones from the other districts. For that, we have, for the last few years, focused on getting our teachers' salary schedule competitive.

That's a lot of money you are talking about between an increase in their retirement check and medical benefits.

We have quite a high number of baby boomers in our district. Combined with that, we have a retirement incentive ending in June 2007. So when we look at this large number of teachers, in order to capitalize on the retirement incentive they have to retire next June.

As Senator, I will always put the health and safety of New Hampshire's families first.