Putnam Schools Closed For The Week, Chance For Parents To Prepare

Putnam County Schools will be closed for the rest of the week due to unsafe road conditions and temperatures forecasted to fall even further.

Director of News and Public Relations Buddy Pearson said the decision ultimately came down to student safety. Pearson said Director of Schools Corby King and his team took many different voices into account before making the call. He said EMA Director Brandon Smith and Transportation Supervisor Ron Chaffin both felt conditions would not be safe enough for buses to transport students for the rest of the week.

“The main thing that Corby looks at is the safety of the students,” Pearson said. “You’ve got a lot of busses, there’s a lot of rural areas out there, there are a lot of roads that when they freeze over and they’ve got snow on them, they’re just not going to melt,” Pearson said.

Pearson said School Age Care will be open starting Thursday from 6am-6pm at Northeast Elementary School. Pearson said the number-one concern right now is the temperature. Pearson said with temperatures slated to fall below zero Tuesday night, icy roads likely will not be able to melt. He said this gives parents more time to make a plan for their week.

“A lot of people still have to go to work,” Pearson said. “Even though the roads might be slick, and the weather might be bad, and there might be sub-zero temperatures, there are still a lot of people out there that have to go to work, and we’re very respectful of that, and we want them to be able to plan accordingly.”

Pearson said with snow forecasted for Thursday night and temperatures expected to slide even more Saturday and Sunday, King and his team will likely be faced with more discussion over the weekend about possible closures. He said as of today, though, it does not take a rocket scientist to tell that these roads are not in good shape.

“Some of these backroads and some of these roads that the sun never hits, if you go up to Monterey and if you get out in the county, there are some roads out there that are going to be impassible for a bus,” Pearson said. “Again, the safety for students is what we look at first and foremost.”

Other systems made the same decision Tuesday afternoon. Clay, Dekalb, and Fentress County Schools will all be closed the remainder of the week.