Classes Cancelled for the Rest of the Week for Bear Valley Unified School District

Big Bear Lake, CA – According to the Bear Valley Unified School District today, the District is calling for two additional snow days of no school for Thursday and Friday, January 28th and 29th.  Based upon visual inspection of the bus routes within the Big Bear Valley and the fact that many of these routes are still impassable for buses and unsafe for students to walk to their bus stop and wait for their bus along with the many downed power lines within the Valley, it has been determined it is in the best interest of the student’s safety that all schools within the Bear Valley Unified School District remain closed until Monday, February 1, 2010.  As previously stated, Bear Valley Unified School District is working in close communication with the City of Big Bear Lake as well as the County of San Bernardino and will continue to support their efforts to clear roadways and do not want to hamper those efforts by placing buses and students on the roads. In addition, the District’s Maintenance Crews are making visual inspections of all of the school sites to verify all parking lots and walkways remain passable as well as checking to be sure there is no water damage or power outages within the buildings.  As of this Friday, the BVUSD will have taken their 8th snow day (the first one was issued December 7, 2009).  This year’s school calendar calls for only 8 snow days as required by the District.  Just a reminder to families, five of those days are scheduled during the first week of Spring Break.  If additional snow days become necessary this winter, the superintendent and the school board would need to decide the best course of action.  In the past when the District had gone over the number of days allowed for absences, they applied for a waiver in order to have the additional days excused.  The waiver process is long and difficult and not a guarantee.  They are investigating the possibility of applying for a waiver but a decision to that has not yet been made.  San Bernardino Valley College classes held at Big Bear High School are also cancelled for the remainder of this week.