Snow closes schools twice

Considering the safety of the students and school staff is a priority when determining whether to close school during inclement weather, according to school superintendent Rick Neal, who has had to make that decision twice in the past week.

Last Wednesday, Feb. 20, snow began to fall mid-morning and by 11:30 a.m. the decision was made to close school and send the students home at 12:30 p.m. The ice threatened for Wednesday night did not begin until after midnight and even then, some paved roads were clear.

Neal said that he, the transportation director Cameron McNabb, and crisis management director/primary school principal Keith Martin jointly assessed the properties and conditions to determine whether to cancel school on Thursday. By 5 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, school officials decided to close school for the day.

“Gann Ridge and way out Pat- terson was very slick,” Neal said last week, adding that some of the sidewalks on the school grounds were slick as well.

Pea Ridge school buses travel narrow, curvy, hilly county roads and much of that is on gravel or dirt. McNabb and Neal drive the roads and Martin checks the school property.

Yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 25), although there was light snow early in the morning, Neal said that at 4 a.m. when he and Martin checked the roads, the roads were clear and they made the decision to hold school — a decision he announced about 5:30 a.m. Then, between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., heavy snow began falling, causing them to reevaluate.

“Several bus drivers were reporting by radio that there were slick conditions,” Neal said, adding that by 7:10 a.m. he announced the closing of school and told the bus drivers to turn around and return the students.

Pea Ridge schools send 17

buses out every morning to pick up children; those buses travel 203 miles every morning with about 150 of those miles on “back roads,” according to McNabb, who said there were slick spots Tuesday morning, but no buses ran off the roads.

Pea Ridge has used two snow days for this school year.

Times photographs by Annette Beard Above: Teachers Matt Easterling and Chris Wann enjoyed a bit of levity with a snowball fight Tuesday morning.

Left: Snow fell thick, wet and heavy for about an hour Tuesday morning prompting school officials to send students back home. Some faculty members had already arrived and cleared the walkways of snow.