Green Country Students Spend Snow Day At Park

The decision to close school in several districts Tuesday has come with several questions from parents.

Most districts around Tulsa, especially to the south, made the decision Monday night to close Tuesday, but most of the snow disappeared overnight, leading to questions about whether the decision was made too early or with too much caution.

For Bixby, Broken Arrow and Jenks there was concern about icy roads, especially further south.

For Tulsa, icy roads on the west side drove the decision and they didn't consider a late start or ice routes for buses because that creates another set of complications.

The snow day off from school in Tulsa turned out to be a perfect day to take children out to the park.

“It was fine getting here. We drove the highway getting here and it was fine,” one woman said.

There were lots of children and parents out, taking advantage of a snow day with hardly any snow, because of roads that weren't as bad as expected.

One student, spending her day at the park, even said she thought they could have made it to school.

Tuesday morning was a big improvement from Monday afternoon, when the snow led to plenty of accidents.

The prospect of that much snow turning into ice overnight was what several districts said prompted them to make the decision early Monday night.

TPS Spokesperson, Chris Payne said, "You can have very different conditions even in just different parts of Tulsa and one of the considerations yesterday was there were pretty icy conditions in west Tulsa and being able to get in and out of neighborhoods safely."

In Tulsa a lot of the decision came down to some hilly streets in west Tulsa that had more snow than the rest.

On one hilly road, even a little bit of ice would be dangerous for a school bus.

When TPS is considering closing school, West 53rd Street always figures into the decision.

Just down the hill and over the next one is Remington Elementary. There's no school in Tulsa that has that kind of hill leading to it, and it's a dead end, so there's only one way in or out.

Even on the road to Remington the streets were clear by mid-morning. There wasn't much snow left anywhere around the school, except on the empty playground.

Some parents, said the districts made the right decision, on the side of caution.

"Right where we park things were a little ice, but the main roads, they were pretty clear," said parent, Candace Garza.

Tulsa doesn't ever let out early and doesn't start late because that creates another child care situation.