Knox County Schools is on its own to clear snow and ice from its properties – the city and county don’t pick up the work – and the district has been forced to cancel school for seven school days dating back to Jan. 12 because of travel safety concerns.
Chris Towe, Knox County Schools maintenance supervisor, told Knox News on Jan. 22 the crews’ efforts over the weekend to clear snow and ice in subfreezing temperatures didn’t even make a dent.
“We’re kind of spinning our wheels, and I hate to say it, wasting our time even being out there ’cause we’re not having much success,” he said.
District officials told Knox News they have access to four dump trucks with salt spreaders, some smaller trucks with snowplow attachments and salt spreaders and six compact skid steers to clear school driveways and sidewalks.
Schools have been closed eight weekdays straight including the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and no one can predict with certainty when it will be safe to get school buses back on the roads and allow students who live close to schools to walk. Both the city and county have some streets that have not been cleared, and sidewalks were a mess through Jan. 22 after snow started to thaw and then refroze into icy obstacle courses.