Schools try to outguess capricious storm.

Byline: Anne Williams The Register-Guard

Local school schedules were moving targets Tuesday morning as a capricious system of rain, freezing rain and snow created harrowing conditions on some area roadways.

In the Eugene district, officials initially announced schools would open on time, with buses running on snow routes, but decided soon after 7 a.m. to delay the start time by two hours. By then, many students and staff members already had arrived or were en route to school.

"The whole thing is a huge amount of trouble and I don't blame any parent at all for being upset about the confusion," district spokesman Kelly McIver said.

Even more students had shown up at Creswell schools when the district canceled classes altogether, forcing parents and school employees to find creative ways to get some students home or to other safe havens for the rest of the day. The district announced late Tuesday that today's best-case scenario is a two-hour delay.

McKenzie schools started on time, but released students at 12:30 p.m. as snow piled up on roadways. Officials called every parent, and Superintendent Susan Taylor-Greene decreed that buses would run on a limited basis, following newly devised snow routes.

"Today is going to be a test of how they work," she said, minutes before buses left campus to take kids home.

Springfield was one of just two Lane County districts (the other was Marcola) where it was business as usual - at least at first. With no precipitation of any sort early on in most areas, buses ran with no trouble and classes began on time.

And then it started snowing - hard, especially in the Thurston and Walterville areas.

"In the end, we just kind of gotta make the best decision we can with the information we have at the time," district spokesman Jeff DeFranco said. "An hour later the sun can be coming out or it could be dumping snow, and in this case it was dumping snow."

Such decisions don't come lightly. Designated administrators awaken in the wee hours, check numerous weather Web sites and drive particular routes to check road safety. They also confer with transportation and law enforcement officials, as well as their counterparts in neighboring districts.

`One of the things that's really a problem is when we get totally caught by surprise, and that's what happened (Tuesday),' said Bill Hirsh, director of facilities in the Eugene district. "We knew this weather was coming in and we had predictions that it was going to be something like what we actually saw, but they thought it would be later."

Springfield's call - which officials maintain was the right one - didn't sit well with everyone. The district received at least a dozen calls from parents, DeFranco said, most of them asserting that staying open had jeopardized student safety. On Friday, when Springfield was one of the few districts that closed schools for a second day in a row, officials heard just the opposite, he said, with parents saying it was unnecessary.

By the time school let out Tuesday afternoon, conditions were better, DeFranco said, and he hadn't heard of any significant problems getting kids home. However, with plunging temperatures predicted after nightfall, officials in Springfield and other districts decided to cancel all after-school activities and evening events.

Shannon Caldwell, a Thurston Elementary parent, is among those who wished school had been canceled outright. Her daughter McKayla caught the bus to morning kindergarten, and Caldwell drove to an appointment at Lane Community College, nearly spinning out several times on 30th Avenue, before heading to her credit union job on Country Club Road.

She soon had a call from the school saying the morning kindergarten buses would not be taking students home (DeFranco said parents had the option of fetching their kindergartners or having them stay late and take the afternoon buses home).

Caldwell set out to retrieve McKayla, but arrived an hour late after spinning out twice on Interstate 105 near the 42nd Avenue exit. Fellow motorists in a similar plight helped free her Toyota Tacoma pickup.

"I've spun out about five times today," said Caldwell, a Southern California native not used to driving in such conditions. "It's weird, because you know you're supposed to turn into the turn, you don't slam on the brakes. ... But then it happens and you feel so helpless."

Attendance was well below normal at many, if not most, open schools, according to several principals. Joe Alsup, principal at Crest Drive Elementary in Eugene's south hills, said that about one in four students stayed home - a parental choice he welcomed.

"When parents did call, we would discourage them if they were concerned at all about driving," he said. `It's much worse (here) - we're in this little pocket.'

At Cal Young Middle School, about 100 students were absent, Principal Sara Cramer said. But those who showed up said they had little trouble getting there.

"I was slipping and sliding all over the place on my bike, but it wasn't too bad," said eighth-grader Chase Hellickson, who pedaled the two blocks to school, as he does every day. "I figured if I walked I'd just take more time and get more wet."

ON THE WEB

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