Officials explain why they close schools

CHATTANOOGA (WDEF) – Hamilton Department of Education officials say a lot of factors go into whether or not to close the schools.

Due to the weather, schools in the district were closed for three days this week.

Today classes started up again.

Officials say when it comes to canceling classes, it is all about the safety of children and if buses can travel down all the roads.

They say in the county there are some roads downtown that cleared quickly, but in other rural areas it took longer.

Schools communications officer Tim Hensley says “The people who are traveling the roads, we get reports from them. We send our own drivers out to look at problem areas that they know that they have encountered in the past to make sure that they are passable and that they can get through.”

The school district has an extra eight days built into the calendar for emergencies like weather.

So far they have used six of them.