NEW PORT RICHEY - Debbie Richendollar was gleeful to wake up Monday and send her two children to school.
"I think they've missed too much," Richendollar said during a brief break from work as a New Port Richey BB&T branch manager.
A county away in Hillsborough, Patrick Gelin of Tampa watched his 6-year-old son run through a jungle gym: "I don't think they should have closed" the schools, Gelin said.
Pasco was the only school district in the Tampa Bay area that didn't call off classes Monday due to Hurricane Ivan.
But you won't find Pasco superintendent John Long gloating.
The misery his decision brought to 57,000 Pasco students (and the relief it brought to working parents) was due to "brilliant" planning by Michele Baker, the county's director of emergency management, Long said.
"I've gotten some interesting e-mail about that," Baker said, chuckling. She said one resident asked her: "Who's wrong, you or the other five counties?"
On Friday, the Category 5 hurricane's projected path showed it affecting Florida's west coast on Tuesday. Four days out, Baker recommended monitoring the track through the weekend. But she reserved the right to change her mind.
"You hate to be out of step with the rest of the media market," Baker said. "But it was the right decision for us."
Friday's uncertainty led emergency officials in Pinellas, Hillsborough, Hernando and Citrus to order school closed Monday to provide shelter to evacuees. On a day of partial sunshine and scattered showers, none of the counties ended up opening shelters.
But none of them were saying it was a bad call.
"I'm not going to second-guess," said Ron Stone, spokesman for Pinellas County schools, which has authority to open up to 29 shelters. "We were dealing with what could have been a pretty devastating storm for Pinellas County."
In Citrus County, John Colasanti, the district's health and safety specialist, said power outages from Frances would have made it difficult to notify employees and parents after Friday anyway.
Hernando County superintendent Wendy Tellone concurred. "The only way for us to successfully close school is to do that the day before and to send that information home with students," she said Monday afternoon.
In Hillsborough, administrators also stood by their decision, which was made by noon Friday in consultation with county emergency officials.
"There was probably higher anxiety than usual about the approach of this storm," Hillsborough schools spokesman Mark Hart said.
The Pasco County School Board at its 6 p.m. meeting today will discuss when to make up the days of missed classes due to Frances and Charley. Long said he hopes to come up with a plan that would cause the least amount of inconvenience for staff and students.
State officials, meanwhile, said some affected districts will be allowed to delay taking the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test. The mandatory test is now scheduled to be administered in late February and early March.
-- Times staff writers Melanie Ave, Barbara Behrendt, Monique Fields and Colleen Jenkins contributed to this report.
How Ivan might affect us