School Closings and Delayed Openings: When? Who? and How?

by Lynn K. McMullin

To delay? Or, not to delay? To close? Not to close? When the weather is foul, parents, teachers, and the community at large often wonder how, when, and by whom the decision to close schools or to remain open is made. While one single factor is at the heart of each decision – student safety! – there still remains the question, how does a district determine when the roads are safe?

How are the weather-related decisions made?

First of all, I do set-up the AlertNow early notification system to teachers’ and students’ homes, and it is my voice you hear… but, I don’t make the decision.   In fact, no single individual makes the decision to cancel school or delay school’s opening.

The final call is a collaborative one usually made around 4:30 a.m. by Superintendent Kevin Case, Dean Martel owner of Martel Transportation who bears direct responsibility for student bus safety, Walter LeGeyt, the Director of Public Works, and the on-duty police dispatcher who is in constant contact with the police officers on the road. These individuals are paying close attention to the road conditions, particularly in North Canton where many times, due to a difference in elevation, the roads are more treacherous.  Ideally, at 4:30 a.m., they try to predict what the driving conditions will be like two hours later when the buses will actually hit the roads.  However, sometimes the conditions either worsen or don’t improve as anticipated and a decision to delay or cancel comes at 5:30 a.m. or later.

Yes, there are times when Avon or Simsbury have school and Canton doesn’t; but every town’s bus routes and road conditions are different.  Yes, there are times when your route, or my route, to work might be safely passable, but our older high school students and our buses must navigate some very difficult roads in the hilly North Canton neighborhoods.

In every case, only one question factors into the decision – will our students be safe today?


How to get weather-related updates!

First, the AlertNow Early Notification System is set-up to make phone calls to teachers and students’ homes on the morning of a delay or cancellation. Once the decision is made, the phone call to teachers is arranged immediately, usually around 5:15 a.m.  Hartford students also receive their calls at this time, too, since some of these students catch the bus around 6:00 a.m.  A second of round of calls to Canton students’ families is scheduled for 6:20 a.m.

Second, most schools have set-up the AlertNow student records to include email. If that is the case for your family, you can turn down the phone and use your email instead.   In a few days, you will be able to send a note to your school and arrange for a second email address if you need one.  You can also arrange to receive an email notice by registering for e-notifications at http://www.ctweather.com.   Just follow the on-line directions.

Third, check our www.cantonschools.org webpage.  I use the scrolling bar at the top of the page to post delays, cancellations, and early closings.  It is updated as soon as I have set-up the AlertNow calls.

Finally, you can still listen for school delays and cancellations on the radio and television as follows: WTIC – 1080 or 98.6, WDRC – 102.9, Fox 61, WVIT 30, WTNH 8, and WFSB 3.

More about AlertNow!

Sometimes I get requests regarding the AlertNow Early Notification System from families wanting special arrangements – Can we receive our call at 6:00 a.m., instead of 6:20?  Can we receive a call for delayed openings, but not for cancellations?  Can we receive a call on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays only?  I would love to accommodate, but AlertNow is not set up that way.  It operates from a database using our district’s student information system, so I can isolate ‘logical groups’ already existing within the system.  I could isolate gender or birthdates, for example, but those fields wouldn't make sense for announcements.  However, I can select “all students” and “all teachers” as sub-groups. AND, I can also isolate students by their specific bus routes.  The bus route sub-group, for example, is what allows me to place a special call to Hartford students.  There is a down-side to this special call, however; because when I later make the 6:20 a.m. call to “all students,” these families get a second call from me. The same is true for teachers who are also parents of a Canton student – two calls, one at 5:15 and one at 6:20.

Even with a computer-based system like AlertNow, mistakes happen!  If you are not receiving your AlertNow call, please contact the school with the correct phone numbers.  This past Wednesday, I disconnected a cell phone belonging to an elderly woman in South Carolina who called back to say she “has no kids and was enjoying her weather down south very much!”  Our records had her cell phone number listed as belonging to one of our teachers, but it was an easy fix.  After Wednesday’s call, I was also able to provide information to our schools about four invalid phone numbers and 22 disconnected phones, thus enabling us to correct our contact information.  I also know based on our “delivery report” that 78% of the calls went to answering machines, 14% were answered live (including the woman in South Carolina), 6% were ‘live partials’ (meaning the person hung up on us), and the remaining 2% were busy, disconnected, or invalid numbers.