ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, November 25, 1996 TAG: 9611250008
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
About 4 a.m. on cold and snowy mornings in Roanoke, Richard Kelley heads out in the darkness in his four-wheel-drive vehicle to check on the streets.
He wants to get a firsthand look at driving conditions to help him determine whether school buses can travel safely. He checks sidewalks and school parking lots for ice.
Kelley, assistant school superintendent for operations, talks with Chauncey Logan, transportation director, and with school security officers, who have been monitoring weather and road conditions throughout the night.
He consults with the city's Emergency Services Center and with city police.
He also checks with the National Weather Service and sometimes goes to the Internet to check the Doppler weather radar and get the latest forecast.
By 5 a.m., Kelley calls Superintendent Wayne Harris and tells him what he has found - and makes a recommendation on whether to close schools.
Harris must decide quickly so he can notify Roanoke Valley radio and television stations before 6 a.m.
If there are several inches of snow on the ground, the temperature is near or below freezing and the forecast calls for more snow, the superintendent said it's a relatively easy call. He closes schools.
It gets tougher when forecasters predict snow or say the storm is on its way but there is little or no accumulation by 5 a.m., he said.
"If they say it's going to be a big snow and I close schools and then we don't get it, I get calls from people who want to know why we closed," Harris said.
"It can be a hard call sometimes," he said. "It keeps me humble."
Harris can't pass the buck. The superintendent has to make the decision.
In Salem and Roanoke County, a similar process is used to gather information on road conditions so superintendents Wayne Tripp and Deanna Gordon can make their decisions.
Sometimes, Tripp checks on street conditions himself before daybreak. Michael Bryant, assistant superintendent, travels to different areas of the city and confers with police and street crews about the snow, too.
"We watch the Weather Channel, talk to the Weather Service and Robin Reed (WDBJ-TV's meteorologist), but one of the best things is to get out and see the conditions," Tripp said.
In Roanoke County, half a dozen employees in the school transportation division go to different areas to check on roads. Unlike Roanoke and Salem, the county includes large rural areas with some mountainous terrain, and roads can become treacherous more quickly.
"Our people tell us whether our buses can get through and whether it's safe," said James Gallion, assistant superintendent for the county.
The superintendents consider several factors in deciding whether to close schools:
* Driving conditions on primary and secondary roads. If streets are impassable and buses can't travel safely, the superintendents close schools.
* Temperature and weather forecasts. The superintendents try to prevent children from getting trapped at school during the day with buses unable to take them home. If the forecast calls for conditions to get worse, they consider this in deciding whether to close.
* Safety conditions for sidewalks, intersections and other places children must walk or wait for school buses. Even if streets are cleared, schools likely will be closed if sidewalks and bus stops are icy and treacherous.
* Snow and ice accumulation on school parking lots and walkways. If the lots and walkways are not clear, this can cause schools to be closed. But the school systems have snow removal equipment and usually clear school parking lots and walkways by the time the streets are clear.
* Decisions of other local school districts. The superintendents make their decisions independently based on the conditions in their locality, but they confer and exchange information.
Salem has missed the fewest days - 39 - during the past decade because of bad weather. Roanoke County, which has many rural and mountainous roads, has closed the most: 52. Roanoke has missed 44 days.
The superintendents said children's safety is the overriding consideration in all of their deliberations.
"I don't want one child to be bumped, scratched or hurt," Harris said. "I will err on the side of safety."
Tripp said he won't put students at risk, although he doesn't like to close unless it's necessary. "The essential thing is the safety of the children, and you don't trifle with that."
If there is doubt about whether buses can travel safely, county schools will close, Gallion said. "Safety is the main issue."
Closing for bad weather can mean additional costs for utilities and the loss of food sales in cafeterias if all of the missed days are not made up.
Kelley said gas, electricity and other utilities for Roanoke schools cost about $25,000 a day because heat and other services are not turned down unless schools are closed for the weekend or a prolonged storm
These expenses are incurred regardless of whether schools are open. If the missed days are made up, the schools must pay for utilities for these days in addition to the days when they are closed, Kelley said.
Schools lose cafeteria sales if the missed days are not made up. Salem's cafeteria revenues total about $5,000 a day, for instance. But the schools can recoup some cafeteria losses on makeup days.
Teachers and school administrators, whose salaries account for the biggest portion of school budgets, have contracts calling for them to work a specified number of days each year.
Closing schools doesn't have an effect on salary costs for teachers and other professional personnel, because their contracts include makeup days.
Because of state mandates for instructional time, the superintendents are under pressure to keep schools open if roads and weather permit.
The state requires schools to provide 51/2 hours of instructional time a day, or 990 hours a year - the equivalent of 180 school days.
All school divisions schedule 180 days, but some have days longer than the minimum 5 1/2 hours. This enables schools to accumulate so-called "banked time," which they can use to make up part of their missed days.
But most superintendents don't like to use banked time because some parents complain that this approach slights academics. The superintendents prefer to make up missed days, but this becomes difficult when schools miss 12 to 14 days, as they have in recent years.
Salem made up most of its missed days this past year and attended 179 days. Roanoke used three days of banked time and schools were open 177 days. Roanoke County used seven banked days and students attended 173 days. All three localities met the 990-hour requirement because their days are longer than 5 1/2 hours.
Superintendents are in a no-win situation on closing schools and often receive complaints, Tripp said.
``You get calls both ways. Some parents call and ask, `Why in the world are you closed today?''' he said.
Some people complain that closing school requires them to make to make special day-care arrangements for their children.
But others worry about the safety of the students.
"When we reopened before Roanoke and the county last winter after the bad storm, some people called and asked if we were crazy," Tripp said.
Harris said he often gets complaints when forecasters predict heavy snow will move into the Roanoke Valley about 8 or 9 a.m. and he closes schools, but the storm never develops.
"If we don't get snow and the temperature warms up, people call and say, `You dummy, why did you close schools?''' he said.
Roanoke has taken several steps in recent years to try to reduce the number of missed days. Snow routes have been designated for buses to avoid hills and streets that are often slippery in bad weather. School officials have requested that the city make bus routes a priority for snow removal.
The school system also has bought salt spreaders, snow blades and snow blowers to clear school grounds. It recently bought a diesel dump truck that will be equipped with a snowplow to clear large parking lots and entrances at schools.
Roanoke school officials looked into the possibility of equipping buses with chains, but they dropped the idea because of high maintenance and operational costs. Snow and ice can create unsafe conditions for children walking to school or waiting at bus stops that could cause schools to be closed even if buses were equipped with chains, they said.
LENGTH: Long : 148 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ROGER HART/Staff. Steve Yuille will drive the new dieselby CNBdump truck to clear snow from Roanoke school parking lots this
winter. color. Graphic: Chart by staff: Missed days. color. KEYWORDS: MGR