Schools scramble to make up lost time

By Eric Freehling Eagle Focus Editor

March 14, 2015 Last Updated: March 14, 2015 11:46 AM Community

Lily Stenman, 8, of Butler plays in the snow at her house in late January. Though fun for the youngsters, the winter snow and cold wreaked havoc with school schedules.

The apparent end of subzero temperatures and near constant snowfall has left school districts in the county assessing winter's effects.

According to the Pennsylvania State Climatologist, a state agency that in cooperation with the National Weather Service provides detailed climate information, January's snowfall was above average.

February, which saw wave after wave of cold fronts, saw below-average temperatures and more snow than January.

January's average temperature was about 6 degrees below normal. February's average temperature was closer to 2 to 4 degrees below normal. This year has already seen more snow than normal.

For Valley Lines, which provides buses for the 107 routes of the Butler School District, the recent thaw means less time plowing snow at the business' four locations and more time devoted to maintenance of its 120 vehicles.

“We've been putting in some serious hours plowing snow. We have to maintain our parking lots,” said Ben Clepper, Valley Lines president.

The business has a main location on Route 38, a second garage on New Castle Road and two satellite sites on Routes 356 and 422.

Clepper said “The cold definitely added to the wear and tear on everything.”

But he added his vehicles, which run on diesel, gasoline and natural gas, started even on the coldest mornings.

“We had no problems. We use electrical block heaters to keep the engine blocks warm on all but the gasoline engines,” Clepper said. “Gasoline engines are a lot smaller, they are easier to start than a big diesel,” he continued.

“We're out there at 4:30, 5 a.m. starting buses,” he said, noting only three of 120 vehicles failed to start at any point during the winter.

Art Campbell, treasuarer of Campbell Bus Lines in Slippery Rock which supplies bus service to the Moniteau School District and half the Slippery Rock School District, said the line's 60 routes didn't experience delays because of the cold.

“We have two primary garages in Slippery Rock and south of Moniteau High School,” Campbell said, “and two parking garages in West Sunbury and Eau Claire.”

“Almost all of our buses are in a garage,” Campbell said. “They are not heated but they have a roof and walls. We didn't really have any trouble.”

He said the garages are supplied in November with a fuel treated with an additive to prevent freezing.

“With that, I feel really confident up to 15 below” said Campbell. “You start getting past that, you are starting to get iffy.”

The Butler County Airport recorded a low of 15 below Feb. 20.

The cold led to numerous school delays and closings.

Dale Lumley, the Butler School District superintendent, said the district has had to cancel school nine times since Jan. 1.

“Actually, we had four makeup days built into the calendar,” Lumley said. “We used those and added five days to the end of the school year. The last day of school will be June 12.”

Lumley added graduation, originally scheduled for June 5 will have to be moved back, but a date hasn't yet been decided upon.

While he said it was obvious the cost of snow removal on school grounds would be higher, “I don't think it will be really significant.”

“It's been a challenging winter,” Lumley said. “Looking at March, the rest of the month, I don't think we will have any cancellations there.”

Todd O'Shell, spokesman for the Freeport School District, said it experienced nine two-hour delay days and seven cancellations since Jan. 1.

“Five days were built in to the school year as snow days, so those are used up,” said O'Shell. “The board will meet to determine how to make up the remaining two days not built into the schedule.”

“There are a couple of options available, but the board doesn't like to add days to the end of the school year,” he said. “June 5 has been chosen as the last day of school and graduation day.”

O'Shell said the numbers for heating the district's school buildings in February aren't in yet but “given the subfreezing temperatures there will be higher costs than in more temperate winters.”

And costs for snow removal materials will be up, he noted.

“We used a considerable amount of material manning the parking lots and sidewalks,” he said.

There were no additional maintenance costs because crews shifted hours to take care of plowing and salting. Most cancellations were called in by 5:30 a.m. before cafeteria prep work began so no food was wasted, O'Shell said.

The winter proved to be something of a shakedown cruise for the newly opened Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic High School in Cranberry Township.

“I would say that we were ready for this winter. It wasn't particularly worse than others,” said Principal Ann Gaudino.

Since North Catholic's 300 students are bused in from “50 different ZIP codes,” according to Gaudino, cancellations could have gotten complex. Fortunately, she added, member school districts and bus contractors all followed the same cancellation policies, she added.

“We had four snow days (built into the calendar),” said Gaudino. “We are adding two days at the end of the year. The last day of school will be June 8.”

Since Jan. 1, Cardinal Wuerl has cancelled classes six times.

But Gaudino said the May 29 graduation date will remain the same.

“Mars School District has had a total of eight snow days. The first snow day was on Dec. 19. All others were after Jan. 1,” said Josh Schwoebel, district director of communications.

The Moniteau School Board approved a change March 9 in the calendar to have classes on April 6 instead of a vacation day. That is a snow makeup day.

It has been closed eight days due to weather. To compensate, students will have classes on the five snow days already scheduled, which are March 30 and 31, April 1 and 2 and May 22, and now on April 6.

Superintendent George Svolos said makeup time for the other two days will be announced later.

The high school graduation day, June 4, will not change.

South Butler County School District had six weather-related closures, according to Jason Davidek, administrative assistant for transportation and public relations. But the dates for prom, testing and graduation will not be affected.

“When we experience cold temperatures in the winter months, it is fair to say that heating costs will generally be higher,” he said, adding “Plowing and salting expenditures are generally highest in the months with the largest snowfalls. Total costs for these expenditures have not yet been examined, but will likely be higher this year when compared to an average winter.”

Superintendent David McDeavitt of the Allegheny-Clarion Valley School District, said the district has had eight cancellations since Jan. 1.

McDeavitt said three days will be made up by shortening spring break and the rest by moving the last day of school from May 28 to June 4.

Asked about additional costs for snow removal, he said, “That's a tough question. Our maintenance workers were working a lot more, putting in more hours to plow snow. I don't have exact figures.”

“But when they are plowing snow they are not doing other maintenance,” McDeavitt said.