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No changes
in schools'
snow policy
By SHARON KILPATRICK
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
The Rappahannock School Board wrestled with the issue of school closings because of snow and agreed with Superintendent David Gangel that “the most reasonable thing to do is, if we have a concern, to take the safe way and cancel school. ”
The School Board meeting itself had been rescheduled because of snow, from its regular second Tuesday evening to Friday, Dec. 15, at 1 p.m.
Dr. Gangel said he had considered both holding an in-service session for bus drivers, to teach them to put on and take off chains, and shortening bus routes on snow days to pick up only along hard-surfaced roads.
Both options, however, have drawbacks. He explained that on dual-wheels vehicles like school buses, only the outside wheels can be fitted with chains. This provides some help with stopping, he said, but is not much improvement in traction for moving forward.
“With the conditions on the back roads this past week, chains wouldn’t have helped,” Stone wall-Hawthorn District representative William Oliver said.
Dr. Gangel noted that the Warren County public schools restrict bus routes to hard-surfaced roads only on days when the back roads are snow-covered, “but I’m not comfortable doing that.”
(In an interview last week with the Rappahannock News, Dr. Gangel pointed out that if parents were responsible for getting their children to a central pick-up point on the nearest hard-surfaced road, that would leave a group of children standing on the shoulder of the road, exposing them to the weather and also to potential danger should a driver lose control of his vehicle.
(Another concern, Dr. Gangel continued, is that if
See POLICY, p. 18
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