Three inches of snow crept into Clarksdale early Monday morning, slowing things down around town, but causing no major problems.
No local schools held in-person learning Monday and there were no major accidents or power outages reported as a result of the snow.
The Clarksdale Municipal School District is going through its 14-day bubble following the holiday break where all students are learning virtually through Jan. 19 pending COVID tests.
However, faculty did not report to school either. Teachers were able to instruct their classes virtually from home Monday.
“First thing is safety for every place,” said CMSD Superintendent Dr. Earl Joe Nelson. “With snow and ice on the ground, we knew it would be difficult for our staff to travel.
“We just made the call for our staff to teach virtually from home yesterday.”
Nelson said, since CMSD now has the capability to instruct virtually, there may not be a need to make up snow days in the future.
“If the state will allow us to do that based on virtual learning is here to stay, we will continue to follow that process,” Nelson said.
Coahoma County School District is still on the hybrid model of learning where students attend class in-person Monday through Thursday and learn virtually Friday. The first week after the holidays was virtual, but CCSD was scheduled to be back on the hybrid model this week.
“Monday, we went virtual because of the weather and that was the last minute,” said CCSD Superintendent Dr. Ilean Richards. “Last week, we were out because we were coming back from the holiday season and we wanted to bring sure that we were not bringing any cases.”
The students were back in school Tuesday.
Richards said, going forward after the pandemic, the CCSD will have virtual learning on snow days.
“I tell you what the kids say,” Richards said. “We’ve taken the fun out of snow days because we can just put them online.”
Coahoma Community College President/Coahoma Early College High School Superintendent Dr. Valmadge Towner reported at Monday’s board meeting that high school students were going to class virtually before the snow.
CCC had to make adjustments.
“We would have liked to have been at work, all of us. Today, only essential employees are here,” Towner said. “A decision was made at four this morning to do that.”
The schedule going forward will not be impacted.
Although CCC’s fall semester concluded at Thanksgiving break, Towner said spring break would be held at its scheduled time. He said faculty members wanted to have a spring break.
“We’re in full swing relative to the semester,” Towner said.
Both Coahoma County Sheriff Charles Jones and Clarksdale Police Department Chief Sandra Williams acknowledged there was a great deal of snow, but did not feel it caused any issues with traffic.
“It did not affect the traffic in a negative way,” Williams said. “For the most parts the streets were clear and I don’t think the temperature dropped low enough for the streets to freeze. The public works department kept an eye on the bridges just in case they did freeze. It was just a beautiful day.”
Jones said drivers handled the snow well.
“It actually went pretty well,” he said. “We didn’t have a whole lot of problems. We had a few problems, just things that happen every day. It wasn’t out of the norm.”
Clarksdale Public Utilities general manager Curtis Boschert was prepared for snow to cause power outages, but that did not happen.
“Generally, if there’s just snow it doesn’t affect us, but if it comes with ice, that’s what we’re really concerned about,” Boschert said. “That’s when you have broken poles and broken limbs that fall on the wire and such.”
