Morning snow upends school schedules, some students in transit as classes are canceled

MIAMI VALLEY — Miami Valley schools, which have had little snow to deal with this winter, adjusted on the fly Friday morning as winter weather made the morning commute difficult.

Many school districts canceled classes early this morning, while more than a dozen schools began the morning on a two-hour delay, then switched to being closed for the day as road conditions stayed poor or got worse.

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Trotwood-Madison, Bellbrook and Greeneview schools were among those switching from a delay to full closure after 7 a.m., citing worsening road conditions.

Only five of the Dayton area’s 40 public school districts had school on a regular schedule Friday, all in southern Montgomery County — Kettering, Centerville, Miamisburg, West Carrollton and Oakwood.

By 8:30 a.m., all other local school districts in Montgomery, Miami, Greene and northern Warren counties had canceled for the day. Xenia and Franklin schools already had Friday scheduled as a day off for students.

Dayton Public Schools made two late decisions.

Around 7:20 a.m., DPS decided to switch from a regular school day to a two-hour delay. That meant some students, whose schools begin at 7 and 7:10 a.m., had already begun their day.

>> Slick, snow-covered roads leading to crashes, slide-offs throughout region

“We apologize for the late notice. Students already picked up will be safely transported to their schools,” DPS announced on their Facebook page. “Unfortunately, weather conditions worsened after our early start schools had already been picked up. These schools will not be on a delayed schedule.”

Parents responded angrily on Facebook that some students were already on buses or waiting at bus stops for their schools that were scheduled to begin at 8:10.

Then, at 8:15 a.m., DPS announced that schools would be closed for the day.

“The Dayton Public Schools are now CLOSED because conditions continue to deteriorate,” the district’s message read. “The district remains open. All students picked up by DPS buses will be transported back to their stops, or parents may pick them up from school.”

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Some parents questioned whether young students taken back to their bus stops would be able to get into their homes if their parents had left for work.

Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli said at 8:30 a.m. that buses were returning to the earliest-starting schools and taking students home. She said DPS asked parents to let the district know if they needed alternate arrangements instead of taking their child home, and some parents said they would pick up their students from the school.