Icy streets remain a main obstacle for reopening schools in Memphis and Shelby County, according to public school district officials. And it’s unclear whether temperatures could warm up enough to melt the ice and drastically improve driving conditions this week, city and weather officials have said.

Wednesday, Jan. 28, will be the third day of school closures since a winter storm dumped a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain across the southeastern United States over the weekend. 

“Roadway conditions are a primary consideration in any reopening decision, particularly given the size and geographic spread of the district and our responsibility to ensure the safe transportation of students and staff,” Memphis-Shelby County Schools spokesperson Jermaine Johnson told The Daily Memphian.

“This includes main roads, secondary roads, and neighborhood streets that buses and families rely on.” 

The district isn’t anticipating implementing the remote or hybrid learning options available in Tennessee law, Johnson said. Some students received printed work packets last Friday, and the district has posted other academic activities online. 

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There are also no plans to extend the school year. Instead, MSCS is relying on “stockpile” days for inclement weather already built into the calendar, he said. MSCS began the week with eight such days, a product of more daily class time than is required by law.

In addition to roadway conditions, MSCS officials are also monitoring “building accessibility and safety such as parking lots, sidewalks, entrances, and ramps,” Johnson wrote in an email. 

University of Memphis’ K-12 system is also waiting on the roadways to improve, Director of Schools Sally Parish said. 

“Roadways are currently the only obstacle to reopening,” she wrote in an email. “As students attend our schools from across the entirety of Shelby County, we must take into consideration the roadways county-wide, and not only those adjacent to campus.” 

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Shelby County’s suburban districts are also challenged by icy roadways.

Millington Municipal Schools Superintendent Bo Griffin announced Tuesday that schools would close for the rest of the week in the northern Shelby County suburb because of poor road conditions that aren’t expected to improve when ice refreezes. 

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During the 1994 ice storm, Tennessee State Sen. Raumesh Akbari, D-Memphis, was in the fourth grade. 

“We were out of school so much that we had to go to school an extra hour for a month or longer, just to make up the time,” she said. 

This is the first winter that Tennessee school districts could implement hybrid learning days under a new law that Akbari, sponsored last year. The law allows school districts or charter schools to offer a mix of in-person and remote learning for students during inclement weather. 

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It’s a kind of on-ramp option for districts to use if some schools or students can make it to class and others can’t, Akbari said, rather than a tool for districts in the middle of widespread power outages or poor road conditions.

“You have kids who live in all sorts of parts of the state, especially in our more rural areas, where some have ready access to the school and some might live on some back roads that make it more difficult for them to get to school. And you have the same issues really in Memphis as well, in different parts of the county,” Akbari said. 

So far, Akbari said she hasn’t heard of any districts implementing the hybrid days. The Tennessee Department of Education did not respond to questions about whether any districts had implemented the hybrid option or an option for up to five remote school days. 

Tennessee lawmakers placed stricter rules on remote learning options in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic when some school districts allowed remote learning for weeks, months and years at a time. 

Charter schools in Memphis and Shelby County aren’t tied to MSCS’ decisions about weather closures.

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Bob Nardo, executive director of Libertas School of Memphis in Frayser, said he is unlikely to implement hybrid or remote learning because not every student has a computer. 

“We like to keep school open whenever we can to be there for kids,” Nardo said. “... When it is simply unsafe to travel, we provide families with things kids can do at home.”

This year, that included printed materials and links to free audiobooks. 

Reporter Abigail Warren contributed to this story.