LeRoy CUSD #2 Winter Weather

We would like to keep you informed of the decision-making process regarding the cancellation of school during the winter months.  Please remember that, regardless of the district’s decision to have school in inclement weather, ultimately parents have the final say on whether or not a child attends school. We will support those decisions made in good faith out of the personal beliefs regarding their child's safety.

1. All school cancellations are communicated through Skylert Notifications, the district Twitter, the district Facebook page, and local media.  These alerts occur in a mass release and will be posted and received in random fashion, but will be released as soon as decisions are made.

2. Generally, the latest we make decisions on school is around 5:30a.m.  However, it is very important for parents to have plans in place in case the decision needs to be made later.  It is quite possible that bus or building issues could come up and not be discovered until after 6:00 a.m.  In those cases, decisions on school attendance could be made at a later time.

3. Regarding extra-curricular events, practices, and other school related activities outside of the normal day.  We prefer to exercise flexibility in these situations as opposed to an inflexible policy.  Often times events scheduled in the evening could be held as conditions improve, as could practices.  Some schools do not have 
that policy, and we will respect the wishes of the individual districts involved.  Again, we will support those decisions made in good faith out of the personal beliefs regarding their child's safety.

Information considered when making decisions about cancelling school

1. Over 90% of our students are within 10 miles of our buildings.  This makes us much more unique that many of the other rural districts around us.  On virtually any day, we can get the overwhelming majority of our students to school.  This is not always the case for staff that may live outside of the district, and sometimes road conditions would dictate an unreasonable risk for them to travel to school.

2. Empire Township road crews do a great job of keeping our roads clear and communicating with the school district.

3. We now run a gasoline powered bus fleets making the challenges of cold weather and diesel fuel less relevant to our decisions.   
   

4. It is challenging to become completely acclimated cold weather, but we are hopeful that students, parents, and staff are preparing their vehicles with emergency gear, making sure phones stay charged, and everyone dresses appropriately when going out in the elements.  We understand bus stops can be an issue with children waiting out in the cold and ask parents to ensure their students are prepared or make other arrangements for transportation.  

5. In cases of extreme cold, if work creates an early morning conflict for you and your child typically walks to school as a result or if your child is just a regular walker, we have opened our buildings earlier than normal to ensure your child’s safety.  See Cold Weather Attendance Days information below.

6. The prevalence of mobile phones has significantly increased safety in the last 10 years.

7.  We typically will not run delayed starts on cold weather dates because as you delay the start, you increase the potential of students navigating the morning by themselves or actually being outside longer.  See Cold Weather Attendance Days information below.

8. On days of extreme cold, our bus drivers allow extra time at stops so students do not have to stand and wait, but could gather from a waiting car or their homes.

9. Our key source of data is the NOAA Wind Chill Chart (http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/winter/windchill.shtml) When inside the 30-minute exposure area of the graph, attendance is questionable and dependent upon road conditions.  When wind chills are likely to be to the right of that area, it is unlikely that we would attend.

Cold Weather Attendance Days

A cold weather attendance day is defined as any day when it is forecast that the sustained wind chill will be at -10 degree or less.  We will continue to utilize the NOAA Wind Chill Chart as a measuring stick for determining the degree of unreasonable cold.  If cold temperatures are the only variable and the wind chill is within the 30-minute exposure window or to the left, we would expect to attend school.  If at any point it is expected that the wind chills would be sustained to the right of that area, reducing exposure time to 10 minutes or less, we will cancel school. 

• We will provide notification through our school messenger email system.
• We will start our buses at 4:00 a.m. expecting that we would know by 5:00 if we would have any issues with any of the buses or vans.  Also, allowing our buses to be warm when they hit the road.
• We will have a spare bus and driver ready at the bus garage in the event that we were to have a bus issue.
• Our buildings will be open at 6:30 to accommodate parents who need to leave early for work and would like to drop their children off at school rather than have them walk or wait for a bus.
• We will pick students up at the following geographic stops within the city limits of LeRoy on these days.   The bus expects to arrive at Green and Buck around 7:40, the time is approximate please anticipate being at the stop 5 minutes early.
  • Green and Buck, 7:40
  • North and Buck, 7:42
  • Cherry and West, 7:44
  • Cedar and West, 7:46
  • Vine and Hemlock, 7:48
  • LeRoy Elementary (report to the office by 7:30 in order to be staged for the shuttle), 7:50
  • Junior-Senior High School (report to the office by 7:30 in order to be staged for the shuttle), 7:55
• Our drivers will allow extra time at all stops in order to allow students to gather from their homes or from waiting cars.
• At the end of the day, students who would be walking home will report the office and will be driven home on one of our white buses.

Please remember, there is risk on both sides of the decision.  Many parents work and to leave their child at home is also a risk.  We know that if they are at school, they are warm, supervised, fed, and learning.  Regardless of our decision to have school, as a parent you have the ultimate responsibility to decide if your child attends.  We are respectful of that decision and the absence will be excused.