Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 4, 1994                   TAG: 9403040079
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: By Mara Lee
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium

MONTGOMERY LOOKS AT SCHOOL-BUS SNOW ROUTES FOR THE COMING YEAR.

No, schools won't open before Labor Day.

And no, the system doesn't have a meteorological crystal ball. Instead, the school system may begin to operate on snow routes.

Of 24 school days between Dec. 15 and Jan. 28, schools were in session only 13 days. The system has missed so many days that it plans to ask the Virginia General Assembly to waive makeup requirements for the last two days.

The school's transportation department head, Larry Schoff, has consulted with the Virginia Department of Transportation and with Blacksburg and Christiansburg on how snow routes might work. All were receptive, he said.

In a memo to Montgomery County Schools Assistant Superintendent John Martin, Schoff wrote, "`It appears that winter weather patterns may be changing back to a pattern of extremely cold and wet winters. . . . Schools were closed when conditions on the roads in the county would not allow for safe travel of school buses. During this time, most streets in the towns and most major roads were safe to travel by bus."

Snow routes would often be followed on the second or third day of a storm. Martin said Thursday that if not for the power problems, Thursday would have been a typical snow-route day.

Roads with snow-route stops might be Mount Tabor, Catawba, Preston Forest, Ellett, Prices Fork, McCoy, Merrimac, Peppers Ferry, Riner, Pilot, North Fork, Den Hill, U.S. 460, Virginia 8 and U.S. 11.

Parents would be expected to bring their children to the nearest stop.

"We do anticipate it might happen next year," Martin said. He said the schools plan to present a snow-route proposal in May or June to the School Board.