Buses Finally Start, So Does School Boundary County Schools Closed 4 Days By Frigid Weather

The Panhandle’s cold snap broke loose students in Boundary County for most of the week.

Friday was the first day students in the state’s northernmost county went to school after a four-day hiatus.

Students initially stayed home because seven buses refused to start Monday morning.

Then, sometime during the night, a saboteur unplugged engine heaters to the 18 or so buses in the bus yard, turning the engines into ice-cubes Tuesday morning and foiling attempts to get kids back to school.

Bonners Ferry police are investigating the incident, school Superintendent John Schwartz said.

Wednesday and Thursday, the problem was pure weather. With minus 20-degree temperatures and wind, it was too risky to have students standing outside waiting for the bus, Schwartz said.

It still was minus 20 degrees Friday in some areas, but winds were calm, so the buses ran.

Bonner County was the only other school district to cancel classes. School was closed Tuesday because too many buses wouldn’t start. Monday was a scheduled day off and so the school buses sat for three days in the cold.

Some school districts started late, but no others had to cancel classes.

St. Maries School District canceled classes one day more than a week ago because of slick roads.

“I’ve been up at 3:30 a.m. for weeks, it seems like,” said St. Maries Superintendent Dave Cox. He must decide early in the day whether to close school in order to notify radio stations in time.

Schwartz said he hadn’t done his math yet to figure out if Boundary County schools had exceeded the state’s allowable number of snow days. If they have, those days will have to be made up in the spring.

, DataTimes