“With 40 below wind chills, frostbite can occur in under 10 minutes. It is best to err on the side of safety.””

Jay Curtis, superintendent

Amid bitterly cold temperatures, Park County School District 1 is canceling all out-of-town bus routes on Friday morning and closing Clark Elementary School for the day. However, school will continue as scheduled in Powell and in-town shuttle buses will still run on Friday, said Superintendent Jay Curtis.

“We will open our schools as normal for town students, and for those whose parents wish to transport them, or can transport themselves,” Curtis said in an announcement.

The superintendent said the decision to cancel out-of-town bus routes came “after a great deal of consideration and consultation with our administrative team and weather experts.” The issue was not with the road conditions, he said, but the below-freezing conditions.

“With wind chills expected to dip below -40 degrees at times tomorrow [Friday] morning, it is simply not safe to have our students outside waiting for buses to arrive,” Curtis said. “This can be particularly dangerous if the buses are delayed for some reason.”

The district has a “fantastic” fleet of buses, he said, but if the extreme weather was to cause a bus to break down, it could “present extreme health risks to our students,” he said.

“With 40 below wind chills, frostbite can occur in under 10 minutes. It is best to err on the side of safety,” Curtis said.

He added that any student who’s unable to make it to school tomorrow — whether they’re bus-riders or in-town students — will be excused as a weather-related absence.

All Thursday night activities at the elementary schools and Powell Middle School, including athletic practices, were canceled, while high school practices were set to end early at 5 p.m. Curtis said schools would be communicating about the status of all other activities for Friday evening and the weekend.