Snow creates headache for school admins

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HUNTSVILLE — School administrators were ready to resort to using a holiday to squeeze in a day of school, but Ol’ Man Winter is making even that difficult.

Four inches of fresh snow fell across Scott County early Monday morning, prompting officials to cancel classes. Despite the President’s Day holiday, the Scott County School System had planned to be in session in an effort to make up a day previously missed because of snow.

Schools remained closed on Tuesday, and it was doubtful that they would reopen on Wednesday. After the three-to-four inches of snow on Monday morning, a fresh one-to-two inches of snow fell overnight into Tuesday, recreating slick road conditions on surfaces that had been cleared by the late winter sun and efforts of local road departments the previous day.

Midway through the month of February, local schools had been in session only three days as of Tuesday. The excessive “snow days” had exhausted the 13-day bank of days the schools don’t have to make up.

The State of Tennessee requires schools to be in session 180 days each year. However, Scott and Oneida are among the many school systems across the state to participate in a program that extends the school day by 30 minutes in order to accumulate the 13 snow days.

For Scott County students, Tuesday marked the 13th day missed because of snow this winter. However, schools also closed for three days last fall at the height of the flu pandemic, and had planned to use snow days to avoid being required to make up those days. With the cancelation of classes on Tuesday, schools were three days “over the limit.”

Scott County Director of Schools Sharon Wilson described the situation as “frustrating.”

“The options are few for make up,” she said, adding that the hope was to avoid cutting spring break due to plans by construction crews at Robbins Elementary to demolish part of the old building while schools are closed that week.

However, Wilson added, “everything will depend on what the total days missed finally ends up.”

Wilson said the school system also plans to appeal to the Tennessee Commissioner of Education to waive the three days missed due to illness, but added that there are no guarantees that the request will be granted.

In the meantime, every day missed after Tuesday is a day that will have to be made up, even if the state opts to waive the days missed in September. And long-range forecasters say there’s no sign that winter will relinquish its grip on the region before sometime in March.

In the Oneida Special School District, which is currently two days over the limit, the Board of Education has already approved using March 29 as a regular school day instead of a staff development day. Tuesday was also changed to a regular school day, only to see classes canceled due to the snow.

Director of Schools Henry Baggett said the board will take up the issue of how to make up additional days missed when it meets in early March.

Seasonal snowfall is approaching 20 inches in Scott County, and has already surpassed the 20-inch plateau in isolated areas. While that is not far out of line with what was once considered “normal” snowfall in the region, the relative “snow drought” of the past decade makes it seem like much more.

A message posted by Plateau Electric Cooperative after a two-to-three inch snowfall in the middle of last week summed up the thoughts of many: “If you are the one praying for snow, please stop.”