By the time the last of Hamilton County Schools had dismissed early Tuesday, the snow had stopped falling in the heart of the city.
By contrast, Lookout, Signal and Mowbray mountains were reporting up to eight inches of snow, and officials closed several roads in those areas because of dangerous conditions.
Hamilton County schools have used four snow days this year, often because driving conditions were dangerous on the mountains. In fact, the ability of employees and students to safely travel to the mountain schools usually is the determining factor on whether to shut down the whole system, officials have said.
Such decisions leave some wondering why the school system doesn’t cancel the affected schools only and not the whole district.
“I’m not sure why there’s a need to close everything down just because of one school,” said Cliff Ling, a Signal Mountain Middle-High School teacher who lives in Red Bank.
Mr. Ling is among about 65 percent of Signal school employees who don’t live on the mountain, said Danielle Clark, spokeswoman for the school district. There are also plenty of school employees who work in the city, but live on the mountain, she said.
So if only select schools are closed, it doesn’t keep all employees safe, or from traveling on icy roads, she said.
“It’s very complex and all intertwined,” Ms. Clark said.
Once Mr. Ling got home to Red Bank after Signal Mountain closed early, conditions were just fine, he said, but mountain precipitation definitely warranted closing those schools.
“They weren’t even able to get buses to us (on Signal Mountain),” he said. “It was a mess.”
Tuesday’s early closure still counted as a school day because students recorded a half day before being dismissed.
Emily Dickson’s children attend Nolan Elementary and Signal Mountain Middle-High, so she had to leave her job at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee to pick them up Tuesday because there was no bus service to mountain schools.
Even though the snow stopped early in the afternoon, Ms. Dickson said she believed it was necessary to close schools.
“There are so many back roads the kids live on up here, and they get very icy and slick,” she said. “There were two areas that made me slide. One was out near the middle school.”
In some cases, however, Hamilton County Schools will close some schools for weather-related events without closing the entire district. For example, McBrien, Clifton Hills and Falling Water Elementary schools each missed at least one school day in September because of flooding.
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