“It was a very tough call,” said Superintendent Dr. Sally Knight. “Watching the weather all morning I finally decided to call it off with three to six inches of snow called for in our area.”

Only snow flurries, however, fell Tuesday morning within the district’s 418-square mile boundary. Hermann also escaped wintry precipitation throughout the morning and mid-afternoon. Many other area and regional school districts, however, were receiving winter storms including sleet, freezing rain, or snow, and had called off classes.

“I finally decided to call it off and risk it,” said Knight. “Everyone else around us was having whiteout conditions. It was a 50/50 call this morning and it looks like it went the wrong way.”

Knight said that between 4:30 and 6:10 a.m. she watched weather programs and heard reports of other area school districts closing including St. Clair, Washington, New Haven, Cuba, Sullivan, Bourbon, and Union. Heavy sleet was reported in Union at 5:10 a.m. leading to cancellations there. St. Clair and Washington weather reports indicated heavy snow in their region.

A Republican staffer reported heavy snowfall near Krakow while delivering her son to a job shadowing appointment early Tuesday morning at a radio station on Route A, between Washington and Union. Heavy snowfall was reported across the St. Louis region.

At a mid-morning conference call with school officials across the region, Knight said Jefferson City reported heavy snow falling east of U.S. Highway 54 while the west end of town reported no snowfall. School officials across the region reported a variety of winter precipitation, said Knight. Most had elected to call off school for the day.

Knight said Jerry Stephenson, the district’s director of transportation, checked road conditions in the north, east, west, and southern portions of the district throughout the early morning hours. Although they were dry at the time, Knight said the prediction was for bad weather in this region.

“I just didn’t want to take the risk,” said Knight noting the potential danger to students, bus drivers, and district vehicles.

Although the subject has been brought up over the years, the R-2 School District has never developed a “snow route” schedule for student pick-ups or deliveries. All four of the district’s most recent superintendents have said running snow routes would cost the district in funding due to loss of attendance if abbreviated routes were run. Their explanation was many rural parents who work are not available, due to their work schedule, to take their children to a bus stop located possibly miles away from their home. With state funding based on average daily attendance figures, low attendance rates on days with bad weather would potentially cost the district thousands of dollars.

As of Tuesday’s missed day, the school calendar is now extended to Wednesday, May 28. The district has missed classes five times due to weather-related issues. Days missed include Dec. 10 (ice), Feb. 1 (snow), Feb. 21 and 22 (sleet and snow mixture) and Tuesday.

By late afternoon, the sun was shining in Owensville. Cold temperatures were expected again overnight with a chance of flurries today.