THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 11, 1996 TAG: 9602090188
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
IN THE WEE hours of Thursday morning, while the rest of Chesapeake slept, School Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols was awake, dressed and cruising the streets.
He weaved through back roads, in and out of neighborhoods, stopping his car periodically, opening his door and sticking his feet out to test the pavement. His feet could tell him for sure whether the coating below his wheels was water, slush or ice.
``In every case, I found it was ice,'' he said, his voice husky and nasal from the beginnings of a cold.
So a little after 5 a.m. on Thursday, Nichols made the tough call. Chesapeake students would have their sixth impromptu vacation day of the year.
Kids stayed home most of last week, thanks to a rare winter storm that dumped freezing rain and about six inches of snow on Hampton Roads last weekend.
That was after a less-severe bout of frigid precipitation in January, which closed schools for two days.
Not since the blizzard that hit Hampton Roads in 1980 have Chesapeake schools been closed for this long, school officials say. There were no snow days last year.
The most recent closings left parents scrambling to find child care, and students searching for ways to pass the time.
Many folks on Thursday, when temperatures peaked well above freezing and primary roads were mostly just damp from melting snow, questioned the need to keep schools empty. Only one other Hampton Roads school district, Suffolk, remained on hiatus.
Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Norfolk schools went back in session on a delayed schedule Thursday.
``One day was good,'' said Margaret L. ``Meg'' Wardell, 16, a junior at Western Branch High. ``Two days was pretty good. But when it got to the third and fourth day, everybody was sort of wishing we would be back in school so we wouldn't have to make it up.''
But officials say that Chesapeake, like Suffolk, has many rural roads that can be dangerous in inclement weather, even when the major roads are clear.
``If you've got patches of ice out there, you've got potential problems,'' said Tom Cupitt, the school system's spokesman. ``If you've got children waiting out at bus stops, and you've got either a bus or a private car losing control, then you've got a potential tragedy. Our prime concern is safety.''
Nichols said he didn't make the decision to call off classes lightly.
``It is tough,'' Nichols said. ``Sometimes the weather conditions are such that there are no questions about it, and you feel comfortable with the decision you're making. Other times, it's such a borderline situation that it's a tough decision to make.''
The process for deciding whether to close schools is an elaborate one.
Nichols has the final authority, but he has a large network of administrators and school system employees who advise him day and night during a weather crisis.
One administrator keeps in touch with the National Weather Service and the State Police. The transportation director and his staff ride Chesapeake roads to check conditions. The maintenance crews check school parking lots and make sure school buildings are OK.
Last week, those groups met each day at 3 p.m. to report to a snow committee, headed by the deputy superintendent and comprising other top school system leaders.
The committee reviewed all the information, and then made recommendations to Nichols on whether to close school the next day.
Of course, Nichols did his own investigations.
``The decision in Chesapeake is made with one consideration: Is it safe for the youngsters to go to school?'' said Deputy Superintendent William E. Russell.
``We can't afford to have one child injured as a result of high-risk conditions,'' he said.
Still, school officials now are wondering how they will make up the missed class time, as required by state law. The School Board already has approved a plan to hold school Feb. 19, the President's Day holiday, and on a teacher workday in March, to make up for the January closures.
Nichols has suggested holding school June 14, a teacher workday, when students are supposed to have finished for the summer. But that still leaves three days.
Nichols is considering several options he could propose to the School Board, such as shortening spring break, holding Saturday sessions or adding time onto every school day until the end of the year.
The problem of makeup days is floating in the back of students' minds, a little dark spot on an otherwise joyous memory.
``Anything but spring break,'' said Michael D. Garland, 17, a senior at Western Branch High School, who has spent his free days sleeping late, playing in the snow and hanging out with friends. ``That's the big fear, if they take spring break away, because that's sort of like punishment.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MORT FRYMAN
A group of boys uses all sorts of things to slide down a golf green
at Las Gaviotas Country Club.
by CNB