OXFORD – Start the countdown.

With five snow days already gone and another day off for a water main break earlier in the school year, the tentative June 13 school closing date for SAD 17 just got pushed back thanks to back-to-back snowstorms on Friday and Monday.

“Any additional days and I’ll have to tell teachers to start preparing curriculum for the Fourth of July,” chuckled Supt. Mark Eastman from the administrative offices Monday.

While the number of snow days so early in the season are unusual compared to recent years, Eastman said it is unlikely there will be any concern even if another five snow days occur because the school closing date is so early in the month. If the district has another five snow days, the last day of school would only be pushed into the week of June 17, which is generally the time that public schools in some other states are scheduled to close.

“Seniors love it,” Eastman said of snow days that they do not have to make up.

Eastman said in 1995 or 1996 there were 11 snow days used.

“We’re not in that bad shape,” he said.

While cancellation of classes Monday was easy to predict, despite there being no snow on the ground at 6 a.m., an hour after calls are generally made to cancel classes, Friday’s storm took officials a little by surprise.

In a rare situation, school was canceled Friday after some of the buses had started to roll.

“Our meteorologist predicted light snow and what we got was ice,” Eastman said of Friday’s situation where buses were on the road picking up high school and middle school students as early as 5:30 a.m.

When bus drivers began to radio in that the roads were becoming treacherous in some parts and deteriorating everywhere, particularly in the northern half of the 425-square-mile district, Eastman said the decision was made immediately to recall the buses on the road and not to send any more out.

“The safest thing was to pull back,” Eastman said.

In Monday’s storm, Eastman said, “Our meteorologist said, ‘I’m really confident.'”

With more than 4,000 miles of roads to be covered each day, many on hilly and mountainous side roads, it can sometimes be difficult to judge whether to call school off or not before 5 a.m. when no snow has fallen.

“It makes it very challenging. But we always err on safety,” he said.