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No Comments [ Add Comment ]Snow days unlikely for Top of Utah schools
By LORETTA PARKLAYTON -- A year ago, an all-day snowstorm took officials of Top of Utah school districts by surprise. Many buses arrived late to schools, while in Morgan County three buses couldn't get the students home.
Still, a snow day was not declared.
This year, storms have already dropped several inches of snow on Top of Utah. Forecasters predict a 20 percent chance of snow today.
Chances that schools will not be closed in the wake of the storms are much higher than the chance of snow.
If the snow comes, district superintendents across the Wasatch Front will begin this morning checking the weather forecast and talking to snowplow drivers who are clearing parking lots before school starts to decide whether to close schools.
"In the 12 years I've been with the district, we've never declared a snow day," said Donna Corby, Ogden City School District spokeswoman.
The last time Davis School District declared a snow day was more than a 10 years ago, said Christopher Williams, district spokesman.
The Box Elder School District superintendent declared a snow day five or six years ago, said Mary Kay Kirkland, assistant superintendent over curriculum.
"We are so big geographically that to be equally impacted by the snow is very rare," she said.
Also buses transporting students in the western part of the county begin very early, she said.
"To have a real snow day, we almost have to declare it the day before," Kirkland said. "It has to be something really, really bad."
Morgan School District officials said if they would have declared a snow day, it would have been last year.
Gary Reed, director of support services with Ogden district, said parents are either notified through a calling system, hear about it through radio or television broadcasts, or read it on the Standard-Examiner's Web site.
"If the decision is made after we start transporting kids, the kids go to the school and we contact parents by phone directly," Reed said.
"If we don't reach the students' parents, we keep them until they are reached."
Ogden district had a chance to practice closing a school for a day when a boiler quit working, dumping about 2 feet of water in the basement of Horace Mann Elementary School in December.
The decision was made by 6 a.m. to close the school. Corby notified the media and calls went out.
"Only a handful, maybe 20 to 25 families brought their kids," she said. "Most said they heard it on the radio, but brought their kids anyway to see if it was real."
All school districts have either the superintendent or a public relations person contact the media to get the news out there is no school.
In Davis district, parents can call 402-5500 or go to the district's Web site at www.davis.k12.ut.us to find out if schools are closed.
Schools do have to make up any day missed because of snow, so either the schools will open on a previously declared holiday or on a Saturday.
"If parents feel the weather is too bad," Williams said, "they can keep their child home."
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