Whenever snowflakes begin to fall, students staring mindlessly out their windows cross their fingers and hope to hear school is closed. Meanwhile, officials at Facilities Management scramble to make a decision about whether to shut the school down.

Every December, officials prepare for the possibility of snowfall. After two major snowstorms struck College Park last winter, the department found itself buried in more than $1 million worth of work on a budget that allocates $25,000 for snow removal and cleanup.

Employees worked 12-hour shifts — many overnight to maintain staffing levels around the clock — to clear the campus of record-breaking snowfall.

But even after Snowpocalypse, Facilities Management has no plans to budget extra money, officials said. Surpassing the low snow budget by hundreds of thousands of dollars is a matter of routine, they said, and it has never been a hurdle to track down the money elsewhere.

Building and Landscape Services Director Harry Teabout said snow’s unpredictability makes it impractical to change the budget every year. Even though most years Facilities Management officials need an additional $250,000 to $300,000 at the end of the snow season, some years they do not need to use any of the already budgeted money, he said.

“Every year is different,” said Frank Brewer, associate vice president for Facilities Management.

On the years the snow removal budget is exceeded — including during Snowpocalypse — expenses are charged to a “deficit account” that is submitted to the provost, whose office finds surplus money elsewhere to fill the hole, Teabout said.

“So far, they’ve been very good and reimbursed us for all our expenses, and it has never become a burden on the next year,” Brewer said, also estimating that the $25,000 budget is still enough to cover costs in 10 to 20 percent of winters.

Even so, some students feel officials should be taking more measures to ensure the safety of the students and efficient snow cleanup after last year’s saga.

“One of the bigger issues last year is students weren’t told the extremity,” said Leticia Rivera, a junior Spanish major. “They need to let the students know beforehand how to go about it. … When we needed to get back to school, it still wasn’t safe walking to classes.”

But others believe it is highly unlikely this area will face considerable amounts of snow any time soon and said officials should prepare like any other year.

“I’ve been living in Maryland my whole life. Before last year, the record was 52 inches and last year we all of a sudden got 56 inches in 10 days,” junior government and politics major A.J. Francis said. “I don’t think they have to plan around a fluke year. There’s no point in wasting money on that.”

Although last year offered many unexpected challenges, officials said it has only better prepared them for what may be ahead this year.

“It’s always useful to have recent experience, and before last year, it was four or five years before when we had really significant snow,” Brewer said. “By then, you have personnel turnover, and people forget what it’s going to be like. Now that we’ve had that recent experience, I think we’re probably more on our toes. … We are better prepared this year to handle it because we have the recent memory in our minds to deal with it.”

abutaleb at umdbk dot com