Snow costs local school districts a pretty penny

This winter’s snowstorms cost area students days in the classroom, and local school districts tens of thousands of dollars.

With December’s inclement weather and January’s foot of snowfall that brought the city to a halt, local schools bore the brunt of the storm’s impact. Students were out of school for eight days between the two weather incidents, with north Battle Ground Public Schools students out for 10 days due to higher elevation snow.

And the cost of clearing snow and keeping heat on 24 hours a day to prevent further damage from bursting or frozen pipes meant costs racked up.

Evergreen Public Schools, the county’s largest district, saw its Clark Public Utilities bill jump about $95,000 between December and February. That includes a 30 percent increase from Jan. 2016 to Jan. 2017, the coldest and snowiest month of that spell.

The district also paid contractor Tapani Inc. $10,395 to remove snow from district campuses.

District spokeswoman Gail Spolar notes the district may recoup some of that money with the cancellation of three days at the end of the year, which were waived by the Superintendent of Public Instruction in light of the winter’s extreme conditions. Gov. Jay Inslee issued a state of emergency for the snowstorm.

Vancouver Public Schools, meanwhile, estimates the district spent $177,281 on weather-related expenses. That breaks down to $65,317 on contracted snow removal services and tree cleanup, $3,334 to rent a wood chipper, $1,500 on ice melting chemicals and $49,392 for weather-related labor and overtime.

The district’s energy bill increased $101,726 between December and February, a 20 percent increase over the previous year, district spokeswoman Pat Nuzzo said. However, Clark Public Utilities’ energy rebate, granted in light of the historic snow storm, saved the district $44,648.

Meanwhile, the Battle Ground school district received a gas bill of $58,340 in January, a 37 percent increase over the prior year. Its Clark Public Utilities bill increased to $84,000, a 15.7 percent increase.

The district also paid Tapani Inc. $21,278.92 for snow removal. The district had budgeted for $4,630 in snow removal based on previous years, district spokeswoman Rita Sanders said.

Battle Ground Public Schools did not have additional labor costs incurred as a result of snow.

“It doesn’t look like we incurred any significant structural building costs,” Sanders said.

Evergreen Public Schools’ last day of school is June 20, followed by June 21 for Vancouver Public Schools and June 23 for Battle Ground Public Schools.