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

DATE: FRIDAY, February 11, 1994                   TAG: 9402110102
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BAD WEATHER FORCES MANY SCHOOL CLOSINGS

Some schoolchildren in Western Virginia got the afternoon off Thursday. Others got the entire day off. The snowy and icy weather closed schools in the Roanoke Valley three hours early. In Franklin County, they were closed five hours early.

There is good news, however. The students who went home early because of the sleet and freezing rain won't have to make up the day. State policy exempts from the mandatory 180 days or 990 hours of classes any emergency, weather-related dismissals.

If schools plan to take off part of a day, they are required to make up the lost time, said Deanna Gordon, assistant superintendent in Roanoke County, but not when they close early.

During a winter when students in several localities have missed up to 17 days of school because of bad weather, school officials in the Roanoke Valley were relieved they won't be required to make up for Thursday.

Students in Bedford and Botetourt counties are not so lucky. They missed the entire day because of bad road conditions early Thursday, and they'll have to make it up.

State law requires the normal school day to be five and a half hours. Most school systems have a five-and-a-half- to six-hour day.

In Roanoke, students went home after lunch Thursday - three hours early.

Class periods at Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools were shortened, but it was considered a regular day.

At other schools in the city, there was a curtailed schedule, but otherwise it was a normal day of classes, said Lissy Runyon, public information officer for the schools.

Roanoke County and Salem closed schools three hours early, too.

Gordon said county schools closed after lunch and a curtailed schedule of classes. The classes were shortened, but it was a regular instructional day.

The county's normal day for school is six hours for high school and five hours and 36 minutes for elementary. But it soon will be expanded by 15 minutes to make up part of the days taken off earlier because of bad weather.

Franklin County schools opened at the regular time and closed at 10 a.m. - five hours early, said Johnny Smith, director of facilities and transportation for the school system.

Originally, school officials planned to close three hours early because they did not expect weather to create a hazard until later. As the morning progressed, the temperature dropped faster and the threat of icy conditions loomed larger than anticipated, so they sent the students home.

by CNB