Angry student tweets have been flying in, expressing confusion why the school district decided not to cancel school. Assistant superintendent Mike Slagle said the decision was made based on various indicators leading up to this morning.

After monitoring weather forecasts for the past couple days, Slagle said when the predicted snowfall lessened, there was not much discussion to close school today.

“Had we known then what we know now, we may have made a different decision,” Slagle said. “But all the data points up to that point indicated that if it were to occur at all, it would be a very short situation that Overland Park road crews could keep on top of. It happened so quickly in spots that it didn’t turn out that way.”

Slagle said the district’s biggest concern was with an issue on 159th and Antioch, in which at least seven or eight cars near Blue Valley West slid into an accident. At BVNW, Slagle said he knew there was at least one car that slid and hit a curb, but nothing to the degree of gridlock that BVW students encountered.

“We didn’t have the icing throughout the district, there were pocketed areas of problems that surfaced around 7:30,” Slagle said. “The pockets of ice caught a lot of people by surprise, and I apologize for that.”

Based on current weather and information from weather services and the Overland Park road crews, Slagle said the temperatures are well above 32 degrees and should be for the rest of the day. Salt crews have been out, and Slagle said students will get out of school at a normal dismissal time.