Albany, N.Y. ? Eight years ago, in the middle of the night, John Yagielski watched his car burn outside his home and decided then and there to end his 30-year career in education.

No one was ever arrested, but police believe the fire was set because school superintendent Yagielski had extended the school day by 40 minutes for a few weeks to make up for a snow day.

Superintendents say calling a snow day is one of their most difficult decisions — usually a no-win proposition that results in hundreds of calls and e-mails from parents complaining when school is closed or when it isn’t.

“That kind of judgment is subject to everyone’s second-guessing,” said Yagielski, former superintendent of the large suburban Shenendehowa Central school system. “Nowadays that has real implications for families. It’s very rarely clean.”

In Lawrence, Supt. Randy Weseman has said that his phone starts ringing more often whenever snow or ice begins to pile up on city streets. Often, it’s schoolchildren asking about whether school will be canceled.

“I get all kinds of calls from kids,” Weseman said. “They’re on the edge of their seats.”

Thousands affected

The superintendents’ best guess before dawn affects thousands of children, staff members, teachers and parents, who can suddenly have big child-care problems if school is canceled.

“It’s much tougher now than 20 or 30 years ago just because there are two working parents,” said Bruce Hunter of the American Association of School Administrators.

Adam Sampson, 4, offers up a shovelful of snow to fort-builder and architect Lydia Miller, 10. The two raised the walls of their snow fort Thursday in the Pinckney neighborhood. Lawrence schools were canceled Thursday and Friday because of wintry weather.

Before pulling the plug on a school day, superintendents use a system that can include field operatives traversing hazardous streets, Internet forecasts and, increasingly, a school district’s own Doppler radar.

Superintendents also juggle a growing array of considerations, including federal and state requirements that specify the number of days school must be in session.

This winter has been so snowy that many schools nationwide have already exhausted their allotted snow days and may have to hold classes on Saturdays, during spring break or at the end of the school year.

Lawrence makeup days

The state of Kansas already allows districts to miss one day of school for inclement weather without making it up, and the Lawrence district’s schedule has a built-in makeup day April 16. But with school canceled Friday — the third snow day of the year — Lawrence school officials now must figure out when and how to make up the time.

Weseman said district officials would work on a recommendation to present to the school board. It could be call for adding time to existing school days or by extending the calendar.

“We’ll just have to work through the numbers and see what is the best way to do it,” Weseman said.

Beyond the Snow Belt

There are other factors involved in calling off school:

l Snow days increase the mounting pressure to improve student performance. Failing to meet some of those requirements can mean a loss of funding.

l Superintendents also must weigh a rising threat of lawsuits in case of weather-related accidents and a growing number of high school students who have cars but little or no experience driving in bad weather.

And the dilemma extends well beyond the Snow Belt.

“When you think of snow days, you have to think as far south as North Carolina and Oklahoma,” Hunter said. “Northern Arkansas school districts have snow days. It’s freezing rain, but it’s every bit as lethal — in fact, more lethal, because you can stop in snow.”

The Watauga County school system in North Carolina, about 75 miles southeast of Winston-Salem, has closed 13 times this year already; the average for the entire season is 15. It was closed on Tuesday by a quarter-inch of ice that encased much of the mountainous district. In the winter of 1977-78, school was closed 39 times by weather.

The district already has moved graduation back a week and may have to hold classes on Saturdays.

What’s it worth?

Early in Sam Martin’s 19-year career in Ohio, snow days kept him awake at night. The year before he started as superintendent in a rural district, a teacher was killed as he tried to make his way in to work during a two-hour delay. The school was later closed. In Martin’s first year in the Buckeye Valley district, a school bus slid on an icy 80-foot ridge and was stopped only by a tree.

Martin, now superintendent of Ohio’s Finneytown school district, would rather err on the side of caution and cancel school.

“People challenge me on it and say, ‘You could have had school today,”‘ he said. “And I just look at them and say, ‘OK. What would you rather do? Go an extra day of school in June or go to a funeral in February?”‘