It’s that time of year again when the weather starts to remind us about our school closing procedures. Our district staff understands that our decision to open or close schools in bad weather significantly affects families. We also understand that our students are better served academically and socially by being in school. As always, our top priority is the safety of our students.
How do we make our decision?
Please understand that we make the decision to open or close the schools in bad weather based on a careful analysis of all relevant factors, such as:
Information on road conditions from transportation staff, administration, and the police.
Amount of snow and ice accumulated.
Whether precipitation is continuing.
Building conditions (such as whether we have electricity and heat).
Our Superintendent drives district roads to assess their safety and collaborates with administrators, maintenance, and custodial staff, who are responsible for clearing and treating parking lots and sidewalks, to determine if conditions are suitable for school operations.
Weather forecast. We prefer not to make our decisions based on a weather forecast, which is not always accurate. But sometimes, this is unavoidable.
What other school districts are doing. While this doesn’t necessarily mean all districts in the area will agree to the same outcome, we share information with other local districts and check whether they are opening or closing.
How are families and staff notified of a school closing?
Communication about school closings will be hard to miss. Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered from every angle! We will push out an email, text and voice call to all parents/guardians and staff members. Additionally, we will place an alert on our district website (www.usd450.net), push a notification to our district app, and post it on our official school and district social media pages.
Even though you probably won’t need it, we understand the nostalgia of watching the school closings scroll at the bottom of the screen during those questionable winter weather days—so we’ll still notify local radio and TV stations, including WIBW, Kansas Public Radio, WIBW-AM 580, 94.5 Country, KSNT and FOX 43.
When is the decision made?
The Superintendent, Mrs. Meggers, must make a decision no later than 5:45 am so that we can notify the transportation department, radio, and TV stations and post the decision on our website and other communication tools.
Although the Superintendent and staff do their absolute best in this process, we know that no decision is perfect. If, based on current weather conditions, you do not feel it is safe for your child to attend school, use your best judgment on whether they should attend. Also, discourage teenagers from driving in bad conditions and offer them alternatives if weather conditions worsen.