No Snow Day

Most Schools Remain in Session Despite Weather

— Most Northwest Arkansas school districts chose to remain open Thursday, decisions that brought both cheers and jeers from patrons.

Pea Ridge was the only district in Benton and Washington counties that canceled school Thursday. Some private schools also canceled.

Conversation threads on some local school districts’ Facebook pages showed vastly different reactions to those decisions to go ahead with school, ranging from acceptance to outrage.

Jamie Pineda’s three children attend Springdale schools. Pineda decided to keep them home Thursday. She said her front porch and yard were covered in ice Thursday morning.

“I think (the Springdale schools) should have called off, just to be safe, so there wouldn’t be any bus accidents,” she said.

Springdale saw a 23 percent absence rate districtwide Thursday, according to Rick Schaeffer, spokesman. The absence rate for a typical day is less than 10 percent.

Absence rates were abnormally high elsewhere in the region as well. Examples included Fayetteville’s Owl Creek Elementary School reporting 25 percent absent, Rogers’ Kirksey Middle School at 22 percent and Bentonville’s Lincoln Junior High School at 20 percent.

Schaeffer said district transportation officials began examining road conditions by 3 a.m. Thursday. The decision to go ahead with school came at about 5:50 a.m.

“They drive the roads, check the forecast,” Schaeffer said. “They try to look at every aspect. We have rural routes for our buses, so we look at that. Temperature has a lot to do with it, and the temperature didn’t get that low. The biggest thing we consider is, will our kids be safe.”

Representatives of the region’s four largest school districts also talk to each other, he said.

“When all four of them agree, that makes the decision a lot easier,” Schaeffer said.

“When I made it to the road, it was clear. The roads usually retain a little more heat.” — Chris DeWitt, director of transportation for Bentonville schools

Springdale officials took the unusual step of announcing school would be open with a Facebook post early Thursday, as well as explaining the reasoning for that choice.

“It has rained, but temperatures have not been low enough to freeze and are not forecast to be low enough to freeze,” the post stated.

Chris DeWitt, director of transportation for Bentonville schools, got up at 2 a.m. Thursday to survey the district’s roads.

“When I walked outside, I saw ice on my sidewalk,” DeWitt said. “But when I made it to the road, it was clear. The roads usually retain a little more heat.”

DeWitt said he spent the next two hours driving around, looking for trouble spots on the roads. Even in hilly Bella Vista, he said, “I couldn’t find any road that gave me pause.”

He wasn’t sure exactly when he decided the roads were OK for school, but it was some time between 5 and 5:30 a.m.

Ashley Kelley Siwiec, communication director for the Rogers School District, said different residents face different conditions around their homes when winter weather strikes. If school isn’t canceled, parents should keep their kids at home if they think that’s what’s best for them, she said.

“The kids will have to be counted absent, but they will be allowed to make up the work they missed,” Siwiec said.

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