A midday Monday snowstorm that hit the Twin Cities harder than expected left hundreds of students at school or on buses well into the night Monday.

The St. Paul district apologized through the media at 9:30 p.m. Monday for failing to call off classes. It was another two and a half hours before the last student was dropped off at home.

While schools in the southeast metro generally were closed Monday in anticipation of the storm, Minneapolis, St. Paul and some north metro districts began the day as usual.

“Knowing what I know now … we definitely would have made a different decision,” St. Paul schools superintendent Joe Gothard said.

By 10 a.m. Monday, St. Paul announced schools that normally close at 2 p.m. would close a half-hour early to give buses a head start — which would prove woefully insufficient.

Bus drivers for the St. Paul district typically make three afternoon runs, picking up students at 2, 3 and 4 p.m.

School district transportation director Tom Burr said that with the early dismissal, the 1:30 p.m. routes got started on time. But among the 550 bus runs starting at 3 or 4 p.m., he said, roughly 400 were at least 10 minutes late.

Ten district buses crashed and 20 got stuck in the snow, officials said, causing delays of several hours in some cases.

All told, more than 300 St. Paul students, from preschool to eighth grade, were stuck at school or on buses after 10 p.m. Monday, Burr said. The last didn’t arrive home till five minutes after midnight. An additional 50 to 75 special-needs students got home as late at 10 p.m.

Burr said he asked drivers to come back to work to cover late routes but no one volunteered.

“You know the way to solve this? Cancel school. In hindsight, we would have,” he said.

Meanwhile, parents were getting bad information from a district phone app that indicates whether or not buses are on time. Burr said the system requires bus drivers to radio a dispatcher, who passes the information on to the transportation office, which updates the app.

With 10 times as many late buses as usual, they couldn’t keep up, leaving parents waiting for stranded buses they thought would be on time.

“We were somewhat overwhelmed by the situation,” Burr said.

HUNGRY BUT HAPPY

At Nokomis Montessori’s north campus, one of seven afternoon buses was on time to pick up students, said James Miller, whose wife teaches there. He said the last bus left Nokomis at 8 p.m.

“They were trying to find anything in the lunchroom — graham crackers, cheese sticks — to feed the kids. Some were sleeping,” he said.

Staff reported that the grades 5-8 Farnsworth Aerospace school had students in the building till about 11 p.m.

All @FAerospace scholars are at last on their way home. Thank you @mayorcarter3 for your help pushing out busses at the home of future leaders. @SPFT28 — Becky McCammon (@MsMcCammon) January 23, 2018

At Galtier Elementary, PTO co-chair Clayton Howatt said he and another parent brought snacks around 7:30 p.m. as about two dozen students watched movies and waited for the last bus to arrive.

“They were hungry but other than that they were having fun,” he said. “I think the parents were stressed but the kids were OK.”

Galtier families are absolutely the best! Neighbors heard 25 kids are still here at 8:00pm so they brought food over in a sled!! #pride! — Sharon Hendrix (@SharonHendrix1) January 23, 2018

Mayor Melvin Carter III, who helped out Monday night at Farnsworth, was heartened by neighbors rescuing drivers with shovels and snow plows.

“People just pitched in to help in a way I am very proud of,” he said.

At 3:30 today Assistant Principal Gibbs said, “Lead by example.” He was outside shoveling, pushing cars, and directing traffic in some nasty weather till nearly 10pm, ensuring busses and staff could exit the parking lot safely. Lead by example you did! pic.twitter.com/hsTkiHToxn — AIM (@AIM_SPPS) January 23, 2018

POLICE TOOK OVER FOR BUSES

St. Paul police officers began driving students home around 5 p.m. Monday when residents called about buses stuck in snow in front of their homes.

With some buses still not moving, officers then drove to various schools to pick up students and take them home, said Sgt. Mike Ernster, a police spokesman.

At 10:50 p.m., police SUVs made their last pickup for 11 students at Wellstone Elementary.

“This was more about triaging — finding the children that were in the worst scenario to get them home and then working with the school district to move the remaining children home,” Ernster said.

Monday was a busy night for police overall.

“It was chaotic with crashes, traffic, and stuck and stalled vehicles,” Ernster said. “Driving conditions were abysmal.”

‘TRICKY’ FORECAST

In its apology Monday, St. Paul Public Schools said it “may have taken a different course of action” had officials known the city would get up to 8 inches of snow after school.

It was no secret a major storm was coming, but forecasters figured St. Paul would be spared from the worst of it.

National Weather Service meteorologist Eric Ahasic said that early Monday morning, when the St. Paul district made the decision to open its schools for the day, the forecast called for 6 inches to 8 inches of snow in Minneapolis and St. Paul and much more just to the south.

Describing a 4:15 a.m. expected-snowfall graphic, Ahasic said, “You had your 8- to 12-inch band a little south of St. Paul, kind of along the southeast metro. The 6- to 8-inch was going through both cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul.”

By 6 p.m., the snowfall total at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was 9.3 inches. By midnight, it was 12.4 inches — the largest single-day snowfall recorded at the airport since December 2010 (16.3 inches) and the largest single-storm accumulation since February 2011 (13.8 inches.)

“We saw (the storm) track a little bit farther north” than expected, Ahasic said.

At a news conference Tuesday, Gothard didn’t directly address questions about what information he had at 5 a.m. Monday when he decided to open the schools.

But he said he and his staff had been watching the forecasts as early as Friday.

On Monday morning, he said, he was focused on whether to dismiss students early, not whether to cancel classes altogether.

“The information that I had led me to believe that we would be able to get children home safely Monday afternoon,” he said.

STILLWATER PROBLEMS

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Bus driver Jim Unker said he drove Stillwater students home through white-out conditions Monday afternoon.

“Fogging windows, windshield wipers caked with ice. There was no relief from being unable to see. Defrosters only made the conditions worse,” he said.

Unker managed to keep his bus on the road but said he counted at least five calls from bus drivers who either slid into ditches, couldn’t get up hills or wanted parents called so they didn’t have to try driving down unpassable roads to students’ homes.

By the time he made his last pickup, only one of his usual 15 students was waiting to board.

“So many of the parents decided to pick up their kids or they had the good sense not to send them to school,” Unker said.

CLASSES CANCELED TUESDAY

The St. Paul district canceled classes and their monthly board meeting on Tuesday, citing “the circumstances of (Monday) and the knowledge that the road conditions will not be better by (Tuesday) morning.”

Minneapolis Public Schools also called off Tuesday’s classes “to recover from the significant transportation difficulties experienced after (Monday’s) severe winter weather.”

Mara H. Gottfried contributed to this report.