Sabin Elementary School sits idle on Tuesday, following a decision by Portland Public Schools to close schools due to winter weather.
Rob Manning / OPB
Two of Oregon’s largest school districts chose to close schools again Friday after a fresh layer of ice coated the Portland metro area Thursday night.
Portland Public Schools made the call to close schools Thursday, due to unsafe road conditions.
“We have been able to assess all schools at this point, and most are ready to safely receive students,” said PPS Chief of Schools Jon Franco in a message to families. “However, our buses transport roughly a quarter of our students, and they rely on many roads that remain inaccessible from blockages, low wires, and persistent ice.”
Further, Franco said, many sidewalks, parking lots and driveways leading to school entrances were icy and dangerous.
“There simply are not words to express how disappointed we are about the loss of instructional time,” Franco said. The message to PPS families went on to say that there are no plans yet on how to recover lost school days. Options are more limited for PPS after converting a number of non-instructional days to make up for time lost to the teachers strike.
The Beaverton School District initially told parents it would open Friday, after not holding classes any day this week. But the district eventually decided to close due to challenging road conditions caused by the ongoing freeze.
In addition to Portland, Multnomah County schools are generally closed — including Centennial, Corbett, David Douglas and Gresham-Barlow districts.
In Washington County, Hillsboro, Forest Grove and Tigard-Tualatin are all closed. Similar to Beaverton, those districts reversed earlier plans announced Thursday to be open Friday.
Salem-Keizer schools are open.
Several Southwest Washington districts including Battle Ground, Camas, Evergreen, Vancouver and Washougal are closed. Many of those districts had initially planned to open Friday on two-hour delays, but later decided to close entirely, based on worsening weather conditions.