Concerns about possible icy road conditions caused Habersham School administrators to push back Friday’s class schedule by three hours. The county’s public schools will operate on a 3-hour delay on January 21.
Habersham County School Superintendent Matthew Cooper says they made the decision following a conference call Thursday with a National Weather Service meteorologist. He informed them that, while the previously forecast chances for snow overnight have diminished, there is a very real concern about the threat of icy roads conditions.
Temperatures will be below freezing by 4 a.m. Friday and will stay there for several hours. Rain Thursday coupled with continued snowmelt will likely result in black ice on the roads.
The National Weather Service has issued a black ice alert for Habersham, Rabun, and Stephens counties Friday morning. Temperatures are expected to rise just above freezing by late morning to early afternoon.
“We will have a team out checking our roads for black ice in the morning. If no ice is found we will have school on the delay. If ice is found, the delay could become a closure,” Cooper says.
Habersham students have been out of school most of this week: Monday they were out for the Martin Luther King holiday while Tuesday and Wednesday schools were closed due to weather conditions associated with Winter Storm Izzy.
Students returned for an abbreviated day of classes on Thursday, going in two hours late to prevent bus drivers from having to drive in the dark. While a 2-hour delay is helpful for daylight purposes, the superintendent says “when ice is a concern, a 2-hour delay is not helpful due to how early our buses start their routes.” Cooper added, “We understand that another delay is not ideal but it would be reckless to ignore a meteorologist saying he is concerned about ice in the morning.”
Tallulah Falls School on the northern end of Habersham County will operate on a 2-hour delay Friday. “Classes will begin at 10 a.m. Shuttles will run two hours later than their normally scheduled time,” says TFS Director of Communications and Media E. Lane Gresham.
Habersham is not the only Georgia county still dealing with the aftermath of this past weekend’s winter storm. Rabun County Schools have been closed all week. Students switched to online learning on Thursday and will remain online through the end of this week. Pickens County Schools are also closed Friday.
