Schools cope with first snow of year

Bill Ehni's three children waited for the school bus to pick them up Thursday morning but it never came.

"I'm sort of annoyed," said Ehni, who lives behind the airport on Goni Road. "If they can't get the buses out to all of the neighborhoods, then it should be a snow day."

Despite an overnight 4-inch snowfall, Carson City schools remained in session. However, some bus routes were canceled.

"I felt the buses could really travel along the valley floor without a great deal of problem," said Superintendent Jim Parry. "We didn't bus the canyons even though they were chained up and ready to go at 6 a.m. It was just too dangerous."

Parry said district officials usually contact KPTL Radio and Carson Access Television with any cancellations but the decision was not made in time to alert the stations Thursday morning.

"That was really a judgment call between us and the transportation department and we just weren't quick enough in getting the information to the various agencies that publish it for the parents," he said.

"We just have to get better at doing that. Firming up procedures and communication is our responsibility."

District officials usually decide around 4 a.m. what course of action they will take on a day following a substantial snow storm.

Parry said they are considering two options to cope with heavy snowfall.

The first would be to delay pick-up times for about an hour to bus routes at high altitudes. The other would be to designate a bus-accessible area where the children could walk to be picked up.

"I tend to think we'll experiment with later pick-up times," Parry said.

Either way, parents will be notified with a newsletter sent home from the district and the altered pick-up times or areas will be announced on the radio and television.

Parry said district officials will work around having to cancel school for snow. All snow days have to be made up at the end of the year and could cause conflicts with graduation and other scheduled events.

It also presents a conflict for parents who have to find day care.

"We really take that seriously," Parry said. "We try not to call snow days unless we're absolutely crippled as far as transportation goes."

Snow also causes potential problems on the playground.

"We got rules today," said Frankie Norton, a first-grader at Empire Elementary.

The rules include no picking up snow, no throwing snow, no eating snow, no making snowmen and no making snow angels.

"It's not that fun," Frankie said. "I like building snowmen."

His twin sister Victoria saw another girl had to sit down because she was making snow angels. So Victoria followed the rules.

"I didn't want to get in trouble," she said.