CESD Inclement Weather

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Superintendent's Update to parents - February 12, 2021

 

Hear more about Inclement Weather from Superintendent Kurt Sacher:

 

Be ready for Inclement Weather days and keep your children safe! Please click on this link for information.

With the safety of students, staff and parents our highest priority, our Board of Trustees has supported our plan to close schools on extreme weather days when traveling is deemed unsafe for everyone.

To that end, Central Office has developed a Administrative Procedure (AP 1-13) that will allow school closures to involve a single school, a community of schools or the entire school division. To keep our discussion relatively simple, we believe there are essentially three types of travel days that occur in our Division. We have coded these days Green (all clear), Yellow (use caution), and Red (unsafe).

Green days – the days when it is clearly safe for everyone to travel. All buses are running and all of our schools are open.

Yellow days – the days when buses might not run in some or all areas of the Division, but schools remain open. Some conditions which may result in a Yellow Day include: temperatures that fall below -35 degrees ambient or - 40 degrees with windchill; reduced visibility, road or climatic conditions. On Yellow days, we anticipate that the majority of staff members will be able to drive to their schools and that meaningful learning will take place.  (i.e. There may be a small minority of staff who choose not to travel because they have deemed their unique route unsafe.) Note: if a bus is cancelled because of inclement weather in the morning, it is cancelled for the entire day and will not run in the afternoon either.

  • Parents of bus students are asked to contact your school to confirm your child will be absent on Yellow Days. Some parents may choose to drive their child into the school when their school bus isn’t running, while some parents will choose to keep their child at home that day – schools cannot make assumptions when safety is at stake.

Red days – the days when a given school, area or the entire Division may be closed. These are days when we are faced with extremely cold temperatures (ambient temperature between the hours of 7:00 - 9:00 a.m. is forecasted to be lower than - 40 degrees Celsius, or the temperature with wind chill is lower than -45 degrees Celsius), or a full-blown blizzard, or when we have a combination of heavy snow, high winds, and very low visibility. On Red days, to ensure the safety of our staff, parents, and licensed older students, we feel we need to close schools not only for students, but also for staff. This decision will be made in consultation with school administrators whenever possible. We believe this is the best way to ensure everyone’s safety. It is important to note that a Red day may exist for one school, for one area (i.e. all Sundre Schools), or for the entire Division. Staff will be expected to conduct their work from home and learning will continue remotely. For emergency purposes only, we will be asking our schools to do what they can to have at least one staff member onsite on school closure days to ensure that no students are inadvertently dropped off at the front door of a school.

How will Yellow Days be announced?

When a decision is made to cancel a bus route or all the bus routes, parents of bus students can expect to receive an automated call from your Bus Driver and/or Division Office. Information will be posted to Facebook and Twitter, the Division website and individual school websites at affected schools. Area radio stations will only be notified if buses are cancelled in an entire area or community, or in the whole division.

How will Red Days be announced?

As early as possible on the Inclement Weather day (prior to 7:00 a.m. whenever possible), parents at affected schools will be sent a voicemail, email and text message using our CESD automated communication system. It is, therefore, vital that your school has your current contact information. In addition, messaging will be shared via Facebook, Twitter, area radio stations, and will be posted to the division website and individual school websites for those schools affected.