The ice storm that rolled through western Kentucky on Friday morning caused the Logan County and Russellville school districts to miss their first day of the season.
“We had fair warning about the weather that was coming,” Logan County schools superintendent Marshall Kemp said. “My transportation supervisor called me a little after 5 a.m. and told me about the other school districts around us closing.”
The call was also easy for Russellville superintendent Leon Smith.
“We weren’t going to try it,” Smith said. “When I had to hold on to my car while scraping the ice off to keep from slipping on my driveway, I knew it was a no-brainer.”
The ice that coated cars, trees and other surfaces, but stayed clear on most of the main roads.
The side roads were another matter, though.
“The main roads were not in too bad shape, but some of the smaller roads off of them could have caused us some problems,” Kemp said.
Even if the weather had not been bad, Smith may have still have had to consider calling off school because of sickness.
“We had at least seven or eight teachers sick at the high school,” Smith said. “If we’d gone to school with the inclement weather and a number of subs in the building, it would have just been a lost day of instruction.”
Both districts will have to make up Friday’s “snow day” and the next scheduled makeup day on both calendars is Presidents Day, Feb. 18.
It’s not been decided if that day will be used to make up the day, though.
“That’s a call for the board of education,” Kemp said. “It would make sense. That’s a distinct possibility, based on how many more days we miss.”
Smith said if his district misses no more days, it may not have to be made up on Presidents Day.
“We’re going to watch it the next couple weeks,” Smith said. “If we can make it through the winter without missing another day of school, we might need a three-day weekend when Presidents Day gets here.”
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