SCRANTON -- The Scranton School District is one of several districts that has already called for a two-hour delay Monday, as crews continue to clear roads.
Scranton DPW crews continued clearing out snow from side streets on the west side after the city was hit with about two feet of snow on Tuesday.
Superintendent Dr. Alexis Kirijan tells Newswatch16:
"We are delaying mainly as a safety precaution. By delaying we will give parents, students, staff and buses more time to get to school. There will be less traffic at that delay time and in less than ideal conditions we want everyone to arrive at school safely.
"The district's maintenance team has worked tirelessly to prepare sidewalks and parking lots at our 19 buildings for the return of staff and students. The inside of our buildings have been monitored throughout the week."
Children and their families were found in places likes McDade Park, reveling in the nearly week-long vacation because of four snow days and now a two-hour delay for Monday.
"(It's) Exciting, but I kind of want to go back to school but I kind of don't," said Camilla Sphabmixay, a seventh grader in Scranton. "It's a little boring at home sometimes."
"I do understand that," added her father, Lak Sphabmixay. "It's just a lot of snow. They got to find a place for it, plus the safety for the kids certainly is a concern we do understand."
In front of most schools, sidewalks and roads have been plowed since Tuesday's snow storm, but trying to have a school bus traverse through some of the narrow roadways still has school leaders concerned.
"In all my time, I haven't seen it as bad as it's been out there in the last week," said Bob Sheridan, the Scranton School Board president who also owns D&S Auto Sales & Towing. Sheridan has worked 19 hours a day for four days straight plowing out the roads.
"The people shovel the snow and they made piles and narrowed the streets. So the city is working to get that done and widening the alleys. There's a lot of children that live in alleys in the city of Scranton. We need to get them out. We don't want them walking through 24 inches of snow to the main street to get to a bus."