TULSA, Okla. — The sound of slush is music to the ears of Green Country students. Hazardous roads mean no school.
"We love our students. We want them here," Rosalyn Vann-Jackson with Broken Arrow schools said. "But when they're here, we want them to be safe."
WATCH: 'We want them to be safe': Schools discuss snow day decision-making
This past week, districts like Broken Arrow and Owasso were tasked with deciding whether to have a school day or a snow day.
Parents driving around may wonder why school is canceled when the main roads look as good as they do. But one of the top concerns for district leaders is neighborhoods.
"The ability for buses to safely navigate neighborhoods and streets around the city plays a really big role," said Jordan Korphage with Owasso Public Schools.
Districts consider several factors when making their decision. Factors like road conditions, both in neighborhoods and on key city streets; conditions at school sites, like parking lots and sidewalks; and even indoor conditions, with proper heat and busted pipes. Then there's the safety for both buses and student drivers.
"We have the largest high school in the state of Oklahoma, so we have a lot of 16-year-olds, 17-year-olds, 18-year-olds that are driving in those neighborhoods," Vann-Jackson said.
So, your district cancels school. Now what? Broken Arrow doesn't do distance learning. They have five fixed snow days.
"If we exceed those days, then we tack on days at the end of the calendar," Vann-Jackson said.
It's the opposite in Owasso. The Rams ONLY do distance learning, barring a big power outage.
"This time of year, we just had two weeks off for winter break," Korphage said. "You come back, and now we're in a situation where we're three days off. Continuity of instruction, I'd say, is the biggest thing."
As for that old idea, if one big school cancels, all the others do too? Korphage says that's a myth.
"We're the ones who answer for our decision," Korphage said. "So it's important to us to make a decision based on the factors that we see, and not based on what other people are doing."
Both Korphage and Vann-Jackson tell 2 News that decision deadlines are based on the individual weather event. They try to get the word out as quickly as possible, but also wait for Mother Nature to do her thing.
You can find a full list of school closures on our website.
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