Snow, extreme cold keep northeast Georgia students home Monday

But Gwinnett, the state’s largest school district, will have a digital learning day, citing unsafe road conditions in many parts of the northeastern metro Atlanta county. All school buildings will be closed, and there will be no in-person classes, activities, athletics or meal services.

Piedmont University campuses in Demorest and Athens will be closed on Monday. Young Harris College has canceled classes.

Some communities in the Appalachian foothills received more than six inches of snow Saturday, followed by wind chills near zero on Sunday.

Forecasters expect temperatures to approach the single digits in parts of the region Monday morning. Many school systems across northeast Georgia also canceled in-person classes for multiple days last week because of winter weather.

Towns County Schools Superintendent Darren Berrong said last week that flexibility has become essential during his 12 years leading the district, noting that mountainous terrain can create drastically different conditions over short distances and that forecasts don’t always materialize.

“Sometimes we expect to get the biggest storm and we get absolutely nothing,” Berrong said. “Other times there’s nothing predicted and we wake up the next morning with an inch of snow on the ground.”