Why were Poudre School District schools open Monday during the biggest storm of the year?

After closing schools twice earlier this year for smaller storms, schools in the Poudre and Thompson school districts were open Monday despite an early morning storm that dumped as much as 10 inches of snow on Fort Collins and the surrounding area before 8 a.m.

Colorado State University canceled all classes and operations because of the snowfall, and Front Range Community College switched its Larimer campus to remote learning.

The Weld RE-4 (Windsor-Severance) School District is on spring break this week, as are FRCC’s other two campuses in Longmont and Westminster. Most school districts in the Denver, Boulder and Longmont areas are also on spring break this week, and all other public school districts in the region that were not on spring break also held in-person classes Monday.

Here's a look at the factors at play for school staying in session despite Monday's early dumping of snow.

More:Snow day? How Poudre, Thompson school districts make that call

Snowfall was far more than predicted and accumulated late

PSD and TSD officials said they rely heavily on weather forecasts in making decisions on whether to close schools for inclement weather, and this storm was not expected to drop more than 1 to 3 inches of snow in Fort Collins or Loveland.

“With every instance of inclement weather, we try our best to be proactive, monitoring predicted weather and making decisions with the best information we have available,” PSD spokesperson Madeline Noblett said. “In this case, the storm produced more snow and at a later hour than was projected.

“At 6 a.m., when our buses first started leaving, the forecast (from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) was for 1-2 inches. Therefore, we did not call a late start of a snow day based on that projection.

“That being said, we fully recognize that there were snowfall totals that were higher than that once the storm came through across our 1,800-square mile district.”

Todd Piccone, the operations director for TSD, said his district watches weather alerts issued by the National Weather Service closely and contracts with an independent meteorologist to get predictions specifically for its geographical footprint. That meteorologist, he said, predicted 2-3 inches of snow in an update late Sunday night, and that was consistent with what his crews that went out at 4 a.m. to lay down de-icer and clear snow from at district schools were seeing.

“It dumped on us more than anyone anticipated from 4 o’clock to 7 o’clock,” Piccone said.

The National Weather Service on Sunday was predicting 1 to 4 inches of snow overnight. However, by 6 a.m. state climatologist Russ Schumacher reported 9.2 inches of snow in northwest Fort Collins, and Coloradoan staff observed snowfall of 5 inches or more in various parts of the city, along with blowing snow.

Would a snow day have required extending the school year?

Noblett, PSD’s chief information officer, and Piccone both said calling a snow day Monday would not have required extending the school year to meet the state’s requirements for instructional days and hours, despite the earlier snow days and delayed start.

Both districts build potential snow days into their calendars and neither have reached their limit.

“We’re not at that point yet,” Piccone said.

PSD, TSD and Weld RE-4 closed schools for snow twice earlier this year, Jan. 18 and Feb. 21, and canceled after-school activities on Nov. 17 because of snow.

The two storms that closed school were both forecast to drop more snow on the area than they actually did. Forecasts called for 4-8 inches of snow on Feb. 21 and up to a foot of snow Jan. 18, with only about half that much falling in the Fort Collins area during each of those storms.

PSD also had two early-release days because of heat on Sept. 7-8.

Was state-mandated testing a factor?

Monday was the first day of Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS, testing in English language arts and math for PSD students in grades 3-8. That testing was being conducted as scheduled, Noblett said, but was not discussed while weather-related decisions were being made.

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The state gives school districts a range of dates during which those tests can be administered, so postponing a day or two because of inclement weather would not have been a significant issue, she said.

Why couldn’t PSD have shifted to remote learning?

The PSD Board of Education amended its policies in August to allow schools to shift to remote learning rather than closing for inclement weather, and that remains an option, Noblett said.

However, only middle and high school students have school-issued laptops available at home for remote learning. They check them out for the school year.

Elementary-school students can check laptops out from their schools for overnight use but would have had to do so Friday to have them for remote learning on Monday.

Reporter Kelly Lyell covers education, breaking news, some sports and other topics of interest for the Coloradoan. Contact him at kellylyell@coloradoan.com, twitter.com/KellyLyell or facebook.com/KellyLyell.news. 

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: PSD explains call to keep school open during biggest storm of year