While students stayed at home on Friday afternoon, the ice did not keep administrators and staff away from schools. However, the schools' parking lots, the roads leading to them and the sidewalks adjacent to them were covered with a block of ice.
"This morning we had a big, heavy, dump truck driving over the parking lot, and it could not move the ice around," said Frank Bensinger, principal at Forest Edge Elementary School in Reston. The bus lanes and the school's parking lot were covered with a deep sheet of ice. A Fairfax County Public Schools truck attempted to plow the ice away, but to no avail. Unable to break the ice, the truck started spilling a hot mixture — salt, sand and calcium — onto the surface of the ice.
It was not just the school property, however, that was covered with ice. Becon Tree Lane, the street leading to the school, was iced over as well. There was a noticeable difference between the plowed and cleared North Shore Drive and Becon Tree Lane at the roads' intersection. "This is as bad as I've seen it," said Bensinger about the ice outside of the school.
At nearby Lake Anne Elementary School, the sidewalks on the property were cleared off, but the parking lot itself was a sheet of ice. The same scene was visible at Armstrong Elementary School, another Reston school. Armstrong principal Shane Wolfe said his custodial staff was clearing portions of the bus lanes, so that when the students return to school they can safely disembark from the buses. The sidewalks on the property were cleared off from ice. "My custodians have done a great job clearing the sidewalks," said Wolfe. He added that it would be tough to get the schools open on Tuesday — Monday is a holiday — given the amount of ice present at the schools. "Luckily we have one extra day to let Mother Nature help us melt some of it away," said Wolfe.
Paul Regnier, a coordinator with the FCPS Office of Community Relations, said clearing the parking lots is the responsibility of the school system. However, said Regnier, roads and sidewalks had to be cleared before the students were allowed to return to school. Clearing the sidewalks in front of private homes is the responsibility of the individual homeowners, he said.