The snow really didn’t play havoc with Renton until Thursday, when it closed schools after an aborted start and snarled the morning commute.

That was expected to be the scene on Wednesday; but Renton, like Seattle, was protected by the Olympics from getting the storms that dumped snow to the north and south.

But, the winds changed and the snow found its way to the Central Puget Sound. More snow and a return to extreme cold – at least for our area – is expected this weekend. Sunday could prove to be the snowiest of the days.

City of Renton maintenance crews are on duty around-the-clock, including this weekend, to keep city streets passable, concentrating mostly on major thoroughfares.

Metro Transit stationed maintenance crews at the Transit Center downtown to put chains on buses or tighten chains already on the buses.

Metro mechanic Scott Vissering was busy going from bus to bus, getting down on hands and knees.

“It’s pretty bad,” he said of the conditions. He was to remain at the Transit Center all day, tending to buses.

The snow created havoc for the bus schedule, leaving some people waiting at the Transit Center for buses that never arrived.

Shane Haddrell, who lives in the Fairwood area, was still waiting at the Transit Center at about 9 a.m. this morning for a bus to Seattle. The wait had lasted about 90 minutes and he was thinking about taking a bus back home. A walk home, he said, would take about two hours.

“I will give up in a while,” he said.

He figured he would just go to a coffee shop downtown and get some work done if he couldn’t catch a bus right away. He’s a software engineer.

The city didn’t activate the Emergency Operations Center as of Thursday. “We don’t think we will,” said Preeti Shridhar, the city’s spokeswoman, said on Thursday.

The Renton Municipal Court calendar was canceled on Thursday, but the court office at City Hall was open for business. City Hall also was open.

The city also canceled recreation classes and activities on Thursday, following policies of the Renton School District, which cancels all activities if schools are closed.

If schools are two hours late, all classes and activities scheduled to begin before 11 a.m. are canceled, according to Shridhar. All others will be held as scheduled. If an evening or weekend class is in question, she suggests calling 425-430-6719 or 425-430-6700.

Information about delays in garbage pickup because of the weather is available at rentonwa.gov.

Renton School District officials canceled school for the day around 8:30 on Thursday, after announcing a 90-minute late start at about 5 a.m. School officials were to check the roads Friday morning to make the determination about reopening schools or starting late. Students start their Winter Break on Monday.

“At 4 a.m. that was the right decision,” district spokesperson Randy Matheson said of the initially scheduled late start on Thursday

A group of district staff, including Transportation Director Ron Schepers and Superintendent Dr. Mary Alice Heuschel, drove the dry roads of the district at 4 a.m.

“At that time the roads were fine — very drivable,” Matheson said.

Still, the superintendent ordered a late start for the benefit of students and staff commuting to school from outside the district.

But then calls started coming in from staff members stuck in traffic and parents wondering why school was still scheduled. Then snow began falling in Renton, and at about 8:30 a.m. district officials extended the closure for the entire day.

Because of the scheduled late start, middle-school students weren’t expected to arrive at school until about 10 a.m., and elementary students about 10:30 a.m. Matheson said only a few of those students — the children of parents or guardians who didn’t get the late-start message — showed up at school.

High schoolers were scheduled to arrive earlier than the younger students, and a few were transported to school. By about 10 a.m., Matheson said all of those students had returned home, by bus or parent pick-up.

If the snowy weather continues Friday, Matheson said district schools probably won’t open. But if the temperature rises and there’s enough snow melt, officials will take another look.

Another district group will drive the streets at 4 a.m. Friday.

Matheson said district officials try to err on the side of keeping schools open, where students are guaranteed education, food and warmth.

Schools won’t send elementary-aged students home early who ride the bus unless staff have verified an authorized person, such as a parent or guardian, is available to care for them.

Schools ask that a parent or guardian pick up walking students at the school. A school won’t release an elementary student to someone who comes to the school who is not on a student’s emergency card.

School staff will remain at the school with students until all students are picked up by an authorized person, according to Matheson.

Those precautions are why it’s important that parents or guardians keep the emergency card up-to-date, according to Matheson.

Typically, high schools have a system set up to notify parents of school closures or early dismissals, according to Matheson. High school students are simply released to leave school.

The middle schools are a “hybrid” of the elementary school and high school policies, according to Matheson. Parents are contacted by the school or by students using their cell phones. Parents can request that a student remain at the school if it closes early, according to Matheson. If not, the students go home by bus or on foot.

Sending students home in the middle of the day “isn’t a good idea,” Matheson said. However, the school could get hit with a power outage, for example, forcing a school to close.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Renton schools started 90 minutes late, to take advantage of the late-start planning that has been done to accommodate the Fridays when schools start late to give staff time for cooperative planning, according to Matheson.

However, the 90-minute start caused some confusion in the media, which is used to reporting late starts of one hour or two hours, according to Matheson. The result was that some students were left waiting outside in the cold.

Reporter Emily Garland contributed to this report.