Now that we are deep into winter, I want to remind you and provide a little more clarification on how we determine if we choose to have a late start, school closure, e-learning day and/or activity status changes due to safety concerns caused by weather. There are a great number of considerations that take place to determine what option is the safest knowing the conditions we are experiencing. Snow, ice, wind, drifting, temperature, road conditions, bus and car safety on the road, sun position, timing of weather events, and so many other factors that come into play during these decisions.

Student and staff safety is what drives the ultimate decision.  We want to make sure that everyone at ISD 477 is safe from harm.  We realize that a change in the daily routine causes an inconvenience for some families, so when we can have school we should.  Families always have the ability to make their own decision to keep their child home due to weather or road condition concerns. Simply communicate absences to our building attendance secretaries.

There are a number of key stakeholders who help make a decision that suits the needs of our students and staff. Princeton Public School District Administration works with other local schools, transportation directors, and a number of other staff members to determine what is the best decision when facing inclement weather. The decision to delay, release or cancel school will be made as soon as possible with the information available, and when possible it will be decided and notified the night before.

You will get instant updates via the school message alerts you signed up for, also through the district’s website, Facebook, and Local TV outlets.  Community Ed, Tiger Club and Activities will follow their school closure protocols and send out notifications as needed. We ask that every family have a plan in place to ensure their child(ren) are cared for during a change in the daily school schedule. 

Here are some guidelines we use when poor weather is in the forecast, yet it is not an exact science. 

1. The Superintendent and Director of Transportation will participate in inclement weather webinars provided by the National Weather Service as frequent as offered by NOAA.
2. When we are confident that travel will not be safe, a decision will be made the night before there is a change in the school day, and notification will be sent out that night.  
3. If the decision is not clear, further review of the weather and road conditions will start approximately 3:30am, with the goal of sending out a notification about the school status between 5:00-6:00am. 
4. If a late start is needed, conditions will be monitored closely to determine if keeping students and staff home for the day is what’s best, and an updated notification will come out between 6:30-7:00 if we determine that we need to close school for the day. 
   1. If there is no update during a late start, we will follow the 2 hour late start schedule, which means all morning schedules are just 2 hours later.
5. When determining a cold weather closure, here are the guiding thresholds we follow, with some flexibility if other factors need to be considered:
   1. If air temperature is -25 degrees (or colder) or wind chill is -35 degree Fahrenheit (or colder), frostbite happens quickly so a closure/late start will be needed.
   2. We look at the duration of cold air, speed of wind and road conditions.
   3. Drivability of a bus/car. A bus will gel up when exposed too long to air temps of around -25 F or colder.
   4. We have concerns with a late start due to the cold knowing that kids may go out to the bus stop after parents have left for work (unsupervised). 
   5. We encourage parents to remind students to wear warm clothing to protect themselves during the severe weather. 

As stated before, families always have the ability to make their own decision to keep their child home due to weather or road conditions. Simply communicate absences to our building attendance secretaries.