Lawrence schools are closed today.

The reason: There’s still ice on parking lots and sidewalks. And there was a probability of heavy snowfall overnight, Superintendent Randy Weseman.

“We’ve been working on the sidewalks and parking lots all day,” he said Thursday. “We can’t get them to a point where we’re comfortable having school.”

Weseman announced the decision about 3:20 p.m., shortly after he met with the district’s administrators who handle bus transportation, facilities and operations, and safety.

“That’s the real hazard to me – the conditions around the schools and in the parking lots,” he said. “We’ll have fender-benders and people falling down. And I don’t want to subject our kids or employees to that.”

Other area schools announced closings for today, including Bishop Seabury Academy, Veritas Christian School, Raintree Montessori School, Montessori Discovery Place, Sunshine Acres Montessori School, St. John Catholic School, Corpus Christi Catholic School and schools in Eudora, Perry-Lecompton, Oskaloosa and Basehor-Linwood.

In Lawrence, some Journal-World online readers were upset Thursday about the late call to cancel school, saying they checked up until 6 a.m., then went ahead and got ready for school. The announcement was made at 6:15 a.m.

Some said they didn’t hear school had been canceled until after their children had headed out the door.

Weseman took the blame.

“It’s my fault,” he said when asked why a decision wasn’t announced by 6 a.m. Thursday that classes were canceled – which is standard procedure.

“By the time we got the information we needed, it was 15 (minutes) till 6. And by the time our bureaucracy got in place and got it to the media, it was 15 (minutes) after,” Weseman said. “I apologize for that. That was the situation. Sometimes that’s how it is.”

He said the district’s public information officer, Julie Boyle, was in Wichita at a conference Thursday, “so the lines of communication were not as fluid. : I know some people were inconvenienced and I’m sorry about that.”

The district’s operating procedure for deciding whether to cancel school is to make an announcement by 10 the night before if possible, he said, and if not, then by 6 a.m.

Weseman said that as late as 5:15 a.m. Thursday he had not found any reason to call off school. The buses were able to get through and the major thoroughfares were clear.

But between 5:15 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., he began hearing that the sidewalks and parking lots were covered with ice and sleet and many of the side streets were icy.

Weseman said the people who were most inconvenienced were probably working families who had to get an early start on the day.

Christina Phelps, who has two students who attend Prairie Park School, said the late announcement made for a busy morning at her house.

“We hear school is on and we’re up and ready to go for that, and then we hear it’s not on and so, you know, the elated kids start screaming, and yahoo, I’m calling my friends and we’re all getting together. So, yes, there was some confusion on that,” Phelps said.

Although some people complained, not everyone was inconvenienced by Thursday’s 6:15 a.m. announcement.

Sherry Emerson, president of the Broken Arrow PTA, said the timing was fine for her children, who have to be at school by 8 a.m.

“To me, I didn’t think it was that late. You kind of know that USD 497 is going to cancel school when it’s slick,” Emerson said. “I just turned on Channel 6 at 10 (minutes) to 7 and it was on there. So I didn’t even wake the kids up.”