WASHINGTON – The roads were deemed too slippery when school officials across the state canceled classes Friday — but not too slippery for hundreds of children to show up later in the morning for the movies at Arundel Mills mall.
About 500 people, mostly children and their parents, flooded Muvico Theaters for the first show, said operations manager Tom Noble, who said the 24-screen multiplex was packed with patrons lining up for “The Son of the Mask” and “Because of Winn-Dixie.”
Classrooms across the state, meanwhile, were quiet.
School officials who made the call to cancel classes Friday said they have to base their decision on the conditions of the roads as early as 4:30 a.m., not on their guess of how the roads might be at movie time.
“We get flak no matter what. If we close, we get complaints, if we stay open we get complaints,” said Carey Gaddis, a Carroll County Public Schools spokeswoman.
Gaddis said officials have to consider the safety of school children who live in rural areas of the county that might not be shoveled out before school begins.
Canceling school was probably the right call early Friday, said Kellie Boulware, a spokeswoman for the Maryland State Highway Administration.
“Due to the fact that the temperatures did lower, the schools had concern about ice with the dipping temperatures and the winds, and rightfully so — we did have some icy spots,” Boulware said.
Prince George’s County schools spokeswoman Lynn McCawley said people need to remember “that many of the students are transported before the sun even comes up and can melt things.”
County school officials said there was not enough time Friday morning to shovel all the side streets, pathways and walkways that would have been too slippery for children to traverse in the snow. They also said school equipment is in high demand on snowy days, helping clear highways and main roads, so they sometimes cannot clear out everything for the school in time.
“None of the organizations could get all the (snow removal) work that was necessary by 8 a.m.,” said Glenn Johnson, director of transportation for Howard County Public Schools.
The decision to cancel classes was made easier by the fact that schools have not racked up many snow days yet this year — most of the school systems contacted Friday said they had used only a few of the snow days they built into their calendars this school year.
Although a snow day got school children were out of their teachers’ hair for the day, it made things a little more hectic for the Muvico staff, who spent most of the day “doing two things at once,” Noble said.
But overall, he said, Friday’s crowd was pretty well-behaved.
“It’s not too bad. Today the parents have them under control,” Noble said.
-30- CNS 02-25-05