Photo Credit: Mr. Rusty Davis, Principal
The grounds of Spotsylvania High School were covered with several feet of snow.
Ms. Deborah Collins, Adviser
February 18, 2010
Filed under Top Stories, Uncategorized
Spotsylvania County Schools were closed for 11 days in February due to back-to-back snow storms that dropped record amounts of snow on the area. In between the piles of snow, a layer of ice caused many problems for state and county employees trying to clear the roadways.
School maintenance workers faced many challenges while trying to prepare all elementary, middle and high schools for the return of students. In an e-mail sent out by SCS Superintendent Dr. Jerry Hill, he wrote, “Severe temperatures caused equipment failure and we are now operating with only 4 large plows and several smaller trucks with plows attached.”
Dr. Hill explained that maintenance workers had run out of places to push the snow, and since school division dump trucks were being used to distribute sand and salt, they could not be used for snow removal. According to Dr. Hill, the Virginia Department of Transportation canceled sand and salt supplies for the school division on Tuesday, February 9, and Wednesday, February 10.
“The school division’s budget has no funds to contract out snow removal. The County also does not have any contracts for this service. The current rate for snow removal is $150/hour/vehicle which equates to $1,200 for 8 hours of service, if available,” explained Dr. Hill.
The problems caused by this snow didn’t end with snow removal. During a safety inspection of the structure of all schools, engineers discovered a compromise to the roof of the gym in Chancellor High School.
“It was determined that the load was approaching maximum weight and for safety precautions the engineer advised the school division to bring in a contractor to do shoring (the process of supporting a structure in order to prevent collapse so that corrective work can proceed),” stated Dr. Hill in a second e-mail.
According to Dr. Hill, “The county’s building officials have determined that Chancellor High School should remain unoccupied until the shoring process is completed.” It is expected that the work will take several days to be completed, so Chancellor High School will remain closed through February 21.
“The physical structure of Chancellor Middle School is not compromised as a result of Chancellor High School’s gymnasium issue. Therefore, students from Chancellor Middle School will follow the division’s announcement of school openings/delays,” said Dr. Hill.
Most students are wondering how these snow days will affect the schedule for the rest of the year. “I’ve had several students ask me about make-up days, changes to the schedule for the end of the year, and whether or not our spring break will be canceled,” said Ms. Amanda Rollins, a teacher at Spotsylvania High School, “Some seniors are even wondering if the graduation date will be moved.”
But the most pressing questions still remain unanswered: Will we get more snow? What will happen to our schedule if we have more snow days? Will summer vacation be shortened?
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February 19th, 2010 at 11:00 am
Thanks to Mr. Davis and all of the other administrators for clearing the snow for us so we could come back to school! This just proves how much of a family we are at SHS and how much we are willing to work together to make everything work.
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February 20th, 2010 at 2:04 am
I didn’t realize there were so many faculty couples until after watching the ‘romantic’ video on the side. You guys really are a big family! Love SHS!
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