It’s piled up into eight-foot mountains and has eaten away the roads, forming menacing potholes.  It causes dangerous driving conditions, hours of shoveling and school cancellations.  At Monday’s School Board Meeting, the Board couldn’t decide how to make up the time missed.

The Board will reconvene next Thursday to make a final decision.

Fairfax County Public Schools missed a total of 11 days so far this winter, but one was on a scheduled make-up day, five were excused by the state and three days are built into the year.

“That leaves us with two days to make up,” Superintendent Daniel Domenech said.

Both proposals involve opening schools on April 7, which was initially scheduled as a teacher workday. The other day would be made up by either adding a day to the end of the year (June 23) or by adding 30 minutes onto the end of several days.

“I would prefer adding the 30 minutes to provide more instructional time,” Domenech said.

Nearby counties are handling the missed days differently.  Fauquier County is cutting four days into spring break, while Loudon County is not making up any of its 12 days missed because its school day is 25 minutes longer than required by state law.

Aside from the reschedulings, the snow has caused numerous problems around the school.

Many school custodians shoveled the sidewalks surrounding the school multiple times to make it safe for students to walk.

“We were here Wednesday, Thursday and Friday during the two weeks we had the storms,” said Building Supervisor John Fesperman, who helped clear the snow. “The biggest problem is when they plow the snow into big banks in the parking lots. So it’s harder work than normal, but a good cold winter like this is good every few years.”

Principal Don Weinheimer was unaware that only shovels and manpower were doing the job.

“When I found that out, the first thing I said is, ‘I’m going out to buy [the custodians] a snowblower,’” Weinheimer said.

Baltimore-Washington International Airport received 39.8 inches of snow thus far this winter according to Fox 5 News. This is well above last year’s mark of 3.2 inches. And the “Farmer’s Almanac,” which correctly predicted all previous storms this year, says there will be more snow to come.