Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 19, 1993 TAG: 9303190304
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
SNOW WRECKS SCHOOL SCHEDULES
Most New River Valley school systems remained closed today, as the blizzard of '93 applied Whiteout to the entire school week.School officials in Radford and Pulaski County plan to have school Monday.
Montgomery, Floyd and Giles county schools may not decide about reopening Monday until the weekend.
Radford - which reopened schools Thursday - was the only system not to lose the entire week to snow.
"We're hoping," Floyd County school Superintendent Omar Ross said about reopening Monday. "But at this point, it's still up in the air."
School administrators said they are encouraged by forecasts of warmer weekend temperatures, which will aid snow melting.
However, some rural roads - particularly at school-bus turnaround points - remain narrow and icy nearly a week after the snow fell.
Even though secondary roads have been plowed, many aren't suitable yet for bus traffic, several superintendents said.
Once schools get back in business, administrators must decide how to make up all the missed snow days.
Montgomery schools may shave days off its spring break, lengthen school days, hold Saturday classes or lengthen the school year, officials said.
Pulaski County schools will make up their missed snow days with days built into the calendar or added to the end of it, although no specific plans have been announced. Currently, June 11 is set as the last day of school.
In Radford, scheduled holidays are not changed during the year and lost days are simply added on at the end. As of now, the last school day in Radford will be June 21.
Superintendent Michael Wright pointed out that both city elementary schools and the intermediate school are air-conditioned, and the high school is mostly air-conditioned.
Floyd County plans to reduce its spring break by two days, Ross said. The last day of school already has been extended five days to June 9 to accommodate snow days, he said.
No decision has been made on snow makeup days in Giles County, said Superintendent Robert McCracken.
State restrictions on local school calendars are squeezing Giles schools and the county system's flexibility to adjust, he said. The so-called "King's Dominion Bill" approved by the General Assembly several years ago, prohibits most school systems from opening before Labor Day.
Advocated by the travel and tourism industry, the law forces schools to extend their calendars later into June to ensure 180 days of classes, the minimum required by the state.
Beginning school later in the year - even by only a week - is particularly difficult for rural, mountainous school systems, such as Giles, which experience harsher road conditions during winter weather and have more class days lost to snow and ice, McCracken said.
In Virginia, 19 school systems, all in Southwest Virginia, have applied for exemptions that allow them to begin school before Labor Day. Floyd, Pulaski, Carroll and Wythe are among these.
Bills to amend the Labor Day calendar requirement were killed during the 1993 General Assembly, said David Blount of the Virginia School Boards Association.
"We'd like to see that law repealed. We think [the school calendar] is the local school system's responsibility," he said.
Writer Paul Dellinger contributed information to this story.