San Juan district cancels schools for 'mud days'


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BLANDING — In the Mountain West, snow days are such a common occurrence that most school districts build a snow day into their academic calendars.

But a mud day? Or mud days?

That's what San Juan School District is facing. Students at Monument Valley High School and Tse’biinidzisgai Elementary will be out of school all week due to impassable, muddy roads in the area resulting from a strong winter storm last week, followed by rain and lesser amounts of snow since. The following week is the school district's scheduled spring break, which means students will be out of school until March 16.

"There are just crazy amounts of water and the snow hasn't melted yet," school board president Bill Boyle said Sunday.

The area has had very little precipitation the past four years, Boyle said. Last week, a strong storm front deluged the area, dropping heavy snow. That was followed by rain. All students missed one day of school last week but students in the southern parts of the district missed multiple days due to the weather.


To all of a sudden have nine snow days or mud days, whatever you want to call them, was completely unanticipated.

–Bill Boyle, San Juan School District President


"To all of a sudden have nine snow days or mud days, whatever you want to call them, was completely unanticipated," Boyle said.

Meanwhile, in the Bluff and Montezuma Creek area, Bluff and Montezuma Creek elementary schools and Whitehorse High School will be closed Monday and Tuesday.

"Weather and road conditions will be monitored and a decision will be made Tuesday regarding school status for the rest of the week," the school district's website said.

All other schools in the district will be open.

Boyle said some families are also unable to travel from their homes to public roadways due to the conditions.

While many families welcome an occasional snow day, lengthy breaks are "terrible as far as continuity of instruction and school scheduling goes," Boyle said.

It could mean the school year will extend into June for some students in the San Juan School District, although those decisions have not yet been made, he said.

Scott Laws, operations manager of Goulding's Lodge and Tours in Monument Valley, said the storm dropped about 21 inches of snow in the area last week and "it's been rain and snow all week long."

Some families in the area have been trapped in their homes for almost a week. The Navajo tribal government has issued a state of emergency and has been delivering food, wood and coal to people unable to leave their homes, Laws said.

"Ninety percent of the roads out here are dirt roads. There's just too much moisture. It's a muddy, sloppy mess."

Contributing: Angelique Reed

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