KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Knox County School leaders stand behind the decision that was made to keep schools open on Thursday morning, despite flooding concerns and a lot of angry parents.
"Based on the information we had at that time," said Jon Rysewyk, Assistant Superintendent. "A lot changed in those hours between 5 and 8 this morning. At that point, safety was our concern. Get students where they need to be. Regroup and make a decision from there."
Knox County Schools Superintendent Bob Thomas later sent a letter to families apologizing for the decision, but stuck by their decision-making process.
"With an enrollment of more than 60,000 students, the size of our district complicates any decision regarding closures and we must base out decisions on the information we have at the time," he said. "We recognize that this presented a significant inconvenience for many parents. We want to assure all parents and guardians that no child will ever be left alone at school, even if a parent is unable to pick them up on short notice."
Thomas said Thursday will be counted as an inclement weather day and no student will be counted absent as a result of the district's decision.
Rysewyk said school security officials started checking with 911 at 4 a.m. about road conditions. They were told by around 5:30 a.m. that probably 20-25 roads had issues, and for a district the size of Knox County, that's not a lot.
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"Sometimes people ask that question, ‘why is Knoxville last to close?’ We’re a large district. So what’s happening on one side of town might not be happening on the other side of town," he said.
The buses started running between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. and that's when officials noted that water was starting to rise in more areas. But at that point, it was too late to cancel school. They had 60,000 students to think about.
"When you run out over 300 busses to transport kids, once you’re moving in that direction, you really can’t turn them around midway because you have students at the bus stops, so now it’s a safety thing for students. To get students at one place," he said.
Heavy rain Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 5 - 6, causes flooding in parts of East Tennessee
Rysewyk said none of the schools were cut off by water, but some of the access roads were becoming flooded.
"As that happened and we knew students were secure in school, we began to monitor that and forecast ahead to assess the situation across the district and decided that conditions would only get worse. So, the sooner we could decide it was safe for kids to get back would be great," he said.
He knows that the timing was tough for parents. Elementary school parents had less than half an hour of notice to get their kids.
RELATED: Knox Co. school was open Thursday morning, but many buses were delayed or stopped by flooding
"We do understand that this short turn around was an inconvenience to our parents who work and those sorts of things and that’s why our staff is willing to be at the schools until all the students are home," he said.
All student activities are canceled for Thursday night and school is already called off for Friday.
There was some flooding in Carter Middle School this morning, but maintenance crews were there early and took care of it.
"These are tough decisions and unfortunately in East Tennessee, most of those weather situations seem to happen between 5 and 8 a.m., right when we’re making those decisions," he said. "All we can do is trust our protocols we have and the information and data we have at that time and make the best decision we can."