Pleasant Valley Superintendent James Konrad corrected a rumor that a school bus slid into a ditch on Monday morning.

“One bus slid, but not off the road, and there were no students in it,” he said.

According to Konrad, a couple buses encountered slick road conditions. One in Ross Township pulled over and contacted First Student, which owns the bus, to alert someone to the slick roadway. First student contacted the school district and then the township was contacted and asked to go out and treat the roadway.

Because the bus was waiting for the road to get treated, it did cause a delay in students being picked up, Konrad said.

“When buses are running late, Deena (Boyne, supervisor of Transportation and Student Services) will send out a phone blast,” he said.

The temperature on Monday morning hovered between 32 and 34 degrees, according to various weather forecasters. Occasional light rain fell in addition to a rain-sleet mix.

“Each storm is a little bit different,” he said.

Konrad said school officials start following the weather reports for a storm about two days out. They use the forecast reported by the National Weather Service through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“It’s a pretty long process,” he said. “Weather science is not always 100% correct.”

Konrad said he tries to give parents notice of delays and closures as soon as possible.

“When it’s pretty imminent that we’re going to get a significant snowstorm, we try to make the call the night before,” he said.

In anticipation of the snowstorm expected today, Konrad said he will be up by 3:30 a.m. to get an assessment of the roads. Around 4 a.m., he’ll talk to other superintendents at nearby districts to get their conditions. He’ll make the final call on whether to delay school or cancel it soon after talking to them.