Salmon School District closes early due to safety concerns

The Salmon School District was closing early Wednesday.

A district official said school was getting out early because crews could not get the snow off the roof fast enough. The district’s buildings are old, and a high amount of snow on the roof presents a hazard to teachers and students.

School will get out at 1:30 p.m. Buses will run their afternoon routes starting at 1:40 p.m. Parents who need to make other arrangements for picking their students up should contact the school where their child is enrolled:

Pioneer: (208) 756-3663 SMS: (208) 756-2207 SHS: (208)756-2415 Alternative school: (208) 756-6277

Salmon voters said no nine times to bonds to build new school facilities or repair the exisiting ones. Most recently, in May of last year, they rejected a $14.5 million bond for a new K-8 building, as well as a $3.6 million bond to place a new roof on all existing buildings.

“In the meantime (until the schools get new roofs), the State Division of Building Safety determined that 3 inches of snow on the roof is too much,” said Superintendent Joey Foote. “They start monitoring the snow at 5:30 in the morning. Today they determined that it was safe to have the students come to school for the majority of the day. With their monitoring, they predicted the snow would get to 3 inches after 1:30, so that’s why they are releasing the children early.”

Crews are using a snow-melting formula, but on Wednesday the rate of melting was slower than the accumulation, he said.

In February, contractors can start bidding on new roof construction. Construction should start June 1, said Foote.