MANSFIELD, Ohio — As temperatures dipped into the single digits for the first time this winter on Monday morning, school administrators had decisions to make.
Would school open for the day, be under delay, or was it business as usual?
Six area schools closed and 14 called for two-hour delays. Check out Richland Source’s graph of school closings on our site each morning.
“I was out this morning around 4:15 to drive the city,” Mansfield Schools superintendent Brian Garverick said.
Mansfield City Schools did not close or delay Monday. When making the call whether he will close or delay the schools, Garverick said driving the roads and using his smart phone’s weather app aid in his decision making.
There is a variety of variables that play in to making those calls, Garverick said. Windchill is a big one. Garverick said he needs to consider the students who wait outside for the bus, or those who walk.
Students who live within two miles of their respective schools must find rides or walk, according to Garverick. Everyone else is eligible for a bus ride.
Windchill temperatures plays a significant role in calling for a two-hour delay or closing for Galion City Schools, superintendent Jim Grubbs said.
“The windchill has to be sustained around negative 15, or below,” Grubbs said.
Although the temperature was 6 degrees in Mansfield on Monday morning, and windchill dipped to -10 degrees, according to the National Weather Service, it was not enough to close for the day.
Other than reading the windchill factor, Grubbs said the schools provide the city with bus routes. That way they know which roads to clear first, Grubbs said.
“Our first bus leaves at 6 a.m. so the city plowers I think start by 4:30,” he said. “That gives us a good hour and a half to get a good idea of what the roads are like.”
Grubbs said he called for a two-hour delay for Galion schools because of the ice spotted on the bus routes.
“Drivers need that extra time to be able to have daylight to see those icy spots,” Grubbs said.
Schools will face these decisions throughout the next four days, according to NWS extended forecasts and weather.com.
Temperatures will not exceed 35 degrees Fahrenheit through Friday, reads weather.com’s extended forecast. Snowfall is predicted, with a 70 to 100 percent chance, for Mansfield on Monday night through Tuesday night, according to the NWS.
