Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) will remain closed for the remainder of the week with classes scheduled to resume on Tuesday, Feb. 16, following the scheduled President’s Day holiday on Monday, Feb. 15. All school activities, school practices and use of school buildings are included in the closure announcement.
LCPS Superintendent Ed Hatrick advised, “Decisions about opening schools are always made with student safety first and foremost, both for walkers and bus riders,” in the announcement that schools would continue to be closed the remainder of the week February 8-12. In response to the “worst snow storm in many years,” and “severity of the snow we already received,” Hatrick continued, “It will probably take until Sunday,” Hatrick wrote, “to dig out our 770 buses and make them trip worthy.” Hatrick said that LCPS staff are working to open school parking lots and clear campus walkways. Hatrick asked for help from Loudoun residents “in clearing sidewalks for more than 20,000 students who walk to and from school each day. We also are counting on community assistance to clear bus stops for students who wait to board buses.”
Hatrick thanked the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), Loudoun towns and area homeowners associations for their efforts to clear secondary roadways and community streets that school buses must use to transport Loudoun students. Streets need more than single lane passage and intersections need to be sufficiently cleared to allow buses to turn, according to the announcement.
Although most of Loudoun was affected by the weekend winter storm -- the blizzard of 2010 -- that dropped 20 to 30 plus inches of snow in the area, Hatrick noted that some areas and roads in the county will open before others, and added “our ability to staff schools and get students safely to their schools involves more than just a neighborhood area.”
The announcement of continued school closures did not specifically address weather forecast for more snow by mid week. Surely the specter of more snow only adds to the task for LCPS to move accumulated snow, dig out school buses, and clear school parking lots and sidewalks not to mention the larger state job of clearing Virginia highways, roads and streets.
The regularly scheduled Tuesday, Feb. 9, meeting of the Loudoun County School Board has also been cancelled.
I give credit to the superintendent for making the call early and leading the way for the other school districts in the area.
It's about time someone isn't afraid to make a decision and stand behind it.