Everybody loves a nice snow day, right? It’s a day for sleeping in, sledding, snowball fights and slacking off, of course. Unfortunately, if there’s no snow day, put that sled away, little Jimmy. You’re going to school!

Granville Superintendent Jeff Brown considers many factors when deciding whether school is cancelled or not.

“It’s more of a team decision than most people think,” Brown said. “We have a director of transportation, and then we have a mechanic and another bus driver that actually help us make the decision.”

The first fact they consider is road conditions.

Brown and his team of road watchers usually start around 4:30 a.m.  There are many neighborhoods and bus routes, which means there are a lot of miles to cover.

“We have our quadrants that we look at, and then we collaborate at the end,” Brown said. “Ultimately, they provide feedback for me to make my decision on whether to do a two-hour delay or close.”

A big factor is the buses, but believe it or not, they’re actually pretty tough.

“Our buses can handle quite a bit of snow and ice,” Brown said. “It’s our high school drivers that aren’t necessarily used to driving in those types of conditions that we have to factor into our discussion.”

Brown also considers temperature. Brown said that he generally looks at -15 as the tipping point, but if the temperature can possibly go back up and they can do a two-hour delay, they’ll go for it.

Some times the timing of that decision is tricky.

“The thing that is the most challenging is when weather hits that’s unexpected,” Brown said.

On one day in January, for example, Granville was of the only schools in Licking County that was open.

“We had more of an unexpected freezing of the roadways at the last minute,” Brown said. “It was 6:30 and all of a sudden everything changed and it froze. It was really quite slick for the kids that were driving in.”

These decisions are subject to a lot of feedback from parents, usually a mixed bag between people who are pleased and upset.

“I’m always wrong in some form or fashion, which you have to be somewhat comfortable with,” Brown said. “There are times when everyone else is off and we’re in school, but there’s a rationale to why that happened.”

On those days, many students feel like school should have been cancelled.

“Ultimately what they’re thinking about is getting more rest and sleep and I certainly appreciate that, but we do have an obligation to educate the students,” Brown said.

Brown encourages students and families to take care of their neighborhoods and dress appropriately for the weather, as he stands by his decisions very strongly.

Now there is a chance that there could be more snow days in the future, so only time will tell how events play out.