Thurston County students didn’t return to school until Friday. What took so long?
After nearly a week of snow days, most Thurston County students returned to school Friday.
What took so long?
While many main roads in the area were cleared by Tuesday, Olympia School District said snow-covered side roads and slushy sidewalks were behind the decision to cancel school late into the week.
“Kids can’t be walking in the middle of the street to get to school,” said Conor Schober, community relations coordinator for the district. He said crews had been working to clear school grounds since the snow stopped falling.
On Friday, schools in Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater opened on a two-hour delay. Olympia said that was to give families more time to get to school, noting any absences caused by unsafe travel conditions would be excused on request.
In Tumwater, where fewer students walk to school, rural road conditions contributed to the decision to cancel school.
“Our challenge right now is in some of our outlying areas the streets have still not been plowed,” Laurie Wiedenmeyer, the district’s communications and community relations coordinator, said Thursday afternoon.
Even if school buses could get out there, she said, there was no place for them to turn around.
Now comes another challenge: making up for missed time in the classroom.
Because Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency after the heavy snowfall, districts can apply to the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to waive days that were missed. But districts must still deliver an average of 1,027 hours of instruction for students.
Tumwater schools already had shortened school breaks and added five days to the end of the year to make up for days missed in September due to a teachers strike. Now the district is looking at cutting early-release days to make up time lost because of snow, Wiedenmeyer said.
North Thurston Public Schools next week will make up one snow day they took on Feb. 4. That district has said it will apply for a waiver for days missed this week.
“We will keep you updated on the status of our application and approval; the earliest we will know is April 10, 2019. The last day of school will be announced at that time,” it wrote on Facebook.
This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 8:11 AM.
