Several schools around Oregon closed for several days last week due to winter weather.
The snow caused power outages and road closures for Oakridge School District in Lane County, shutting its three schools down for all of last week.
Instead, officials used Oakridge High School as a shelter and emergency center for residents.
“We were serving between 300 and 500 meals a day,” said Oakridge Superintendent Reta Doland.
The school reopens Tuesday, although Doland says some students may still be snowed in and unable to make it to school. She adds many of the 500 students affected by the closures may come from homes that still don’t have power.
“If we need to have warm showers and have toiletries on hand so they can clean up and be ready, then we have that in place,” said Doland.
To make up for the days lost, Oakridge added three extra school days to the calendar.
Another Lane County district, Bethel, has extra instructional time planned in case of snow days.
Oregon Department of Education officials say they have not received any requests from districts to waive instructional time requirements.