Icy roads glaze way to early break

Schools close, drivers spin

Freezing rain across the Flathead made for slick roads and an extra day of Christmas vacation for most children, as schools from the smallest to the largest decided to cancel classes Thursday.

But in Bigfork, public schools were open.

"It's not as bad as yesterday," Bigfork Superintendent Russ Kinzer said Thursday morning about the road conditions in his area. "They're actually a little better."

The improvement, he said, came courtesy of highway and county road crews who got to work after an earlier round of freezing rain Tuesday night.

"In the morning, we checked all the highways and main county roads," Kinzer said. "They were all in pretty good shape because of the sand dumped on the roads the day before … There are always the small back roads that will be difficult, but you can't call a decision based on those."

Bigfork's half-dozen contract bus routes and half-dozen school district routes - "I've got outstanding drivers," Kinzer said, "I don't even know the limits of their abilities" - collected their young charges without mishap. Three or four routes were shortened to avoid the worst spots, with parents notified in advance to take their children to a common pickup point. Kinzer even drove a few himself from a steep stretch near Woods Bay.

But by late morning, Kinzer's blood still was boiling over inaccurate information announced by some local radio and TV stations that said all schools, including Bigfork, were closed.

He appreciated one radio station that called Kinzer at home to get the accurate scoop, but the damage had been done elsewhere.

"Our attendance rate today is down because of that inaccurate information," he said.

Bigfork buses were ready to go by 6:15 a.m., and the district's decision was in to the county Superintendent's Office before the school's 6:30 a.m. deadline, he said. The fax issued to all media had it right, Kinzer said, but the information announced was wrong.

In recent years, the Flathead County Superintendent's Office was the central clearing house for making the countywide decision to cancel classes for weather or other emergencies.

This year, superintendents of the Bigfork, Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls districts asked to have their own spotters check the roads and make the call on whether to close.

Each district follows a deadline to report its decision to the county Superintendent's Office, which issues all media information.

"This is the first time now, and we can see where it needs a little tweaking," county superintendent secretary Mary Juntunen said. "We couldn't get the calls out as early as usual."

Nobody was answering phones in the Whitefish and Columbia Falls superintendents' offices Thursday morning.

In Kalispell it was an off-again, on-again situation, starting at about 4:50 a.m.

"One of the rural bus drivers called me and said two of his routes would not be in service," said Rick Davis, an administrative assistant in the District 5 transportation office.

Another bus route cancellation came at 5:30 a.m.

At about 5:50 a.m. the Kalispell Police Department issued an emergency-only travel advisory, so Davis notified Superintendent Darlene Schottle. She got on the phone with County Superintendent Marcia Sheffels. At about 6 a.m., Schottle called Davis to say school was on but to cancel bus routes as needed.

By 6:30 a.m., with two dozen drivers of the school district's 38 bus routes calling in to cancel their services, he shut down all of them and started notifying principals that some students might be late.

"By about 7, [Schottle] realized this was a pretty good weather event and all the other schools were closing, so she decided to close," Davis said.

As a former principal, Davis imagined the struggles in her mind over canceling last-day school parties, gift-giving and Kalispell Junior High's annual holiday dinner, a big feast for students and invited community members.

Some would argue for a delayed start, he said, but logistics just wouldn't work with the 2:10 p.m. early-out already planned for the last day of class before Christmas break.

"You've got to make the call," he said, "and given what we had, it was the correct decision."

The junior high office has rescheduled its school dinner for Jan. 4 when school is back in session. They said that Vista Linda, the caterer for the meal, planned to freeze the turkey and cookies until then. Such perishables as fruit and bread will be shared with the local veterans food pantry.