Portland, Beaverton, most other Portland -Area Districts close Thursday due to snow, Sluds

School districts in and around Portland canceled classes on Thursday at the forefront of a snow and ice storm that is expected to hit the metro area in the middle of the morning.

Portland Public Schools, Beavederton, Hillsboro, Gresham-Barlow, North Clackamas and Tigard-Tualatin School Districts Waited for all the school for the day and canceled all related activities. Schools are also closed in David Douglas, Reynolds, Lake Oswego, Forest Grove, Sherwood and Parkrose School Districts.

Community schools and universities also said they would be closed on Thursday, including Portland State University, Mount Hood Community College and Clackamas Community College. Portland Community College said its campus was closed, but previously scheduled virtual courses would continue as planned.

A number of school districts in Willamette Valley have announced two hours of delays to the morning and can switch to full cancellation.

Only a metro area in Estacada has so far announced that it would keep classes almost Thursday instead of canceling everyone. Estacada and Candy were the only two schools in the Portland area that had online classes during the massive winter storm in January 2024 that closed schools around the region for a whole week.

Meanwhile, Reynolds School District, sitting at the western edge of the Columbia River Gorge, families and staff, told the school to be closed on Friday, and reminded them that Monday is a predicted school holiday.

Residents in the Portland area woke up on Thursday to low 30 degrees and Gusty Wind. National Weather Service said residents should expect rain, snow and sleet before noon, probably followed by more of the same plus freezing rain in the afternoon, with snow and gossip accumulations of about an inch but little or no lasting accumulation of ice.

School districts had considered an early dismissal Thursday. But it potentially created a nightmare school pickup scenario, reminiscent of the ICE storm in February 2023, when schools remained open until the usual dismissal time of the mid -term, leaving some students stranded on buses for hours, far into the dark.

Freezing rain from the middle of the morning is a particularly ominous forecast, said Beth Graser, a spokesman for Hillsboro School District. If the school districts share the difference and advertise an early release in the middle of such conditions, it could mean inexperienced teenager drivers on icy roads, students slip and fall on the ice-over sidewalk when they go home and parents shrink to pick up younger children who would otherwise be in aftercare programs.

Putting buses on snow routes, which is another option that the districts had weighed, presents another series of difficult transport logistics.

Portland Public Schools made its decision primarily based on security, said Valerie Feder, a spokesman for the district, including sending staff to scouting conditions and consulting with the City of Portland Transportation Officials.

Making an early decision to interrupt the school also has its dangers, grases and others noticed. If the weather does not turn out as bad as expected, students lose valuable time in school and other activities and some parents get frustrated with a disturbed work day.

Oregon already has one of the shortest school years in the nation, although many districts pillows their calendars to explain the possibility of one or two snow days each year. Decisions about where to add additional make-up days to the calendar typically comes in March, when the probability of snow decreases significantly.

-Julia Silverman covers K-12 education for Oregonian/Oregonlive. Well her via e -mail at [email protected]