PRINT ARTICLE

Print    Close This Window
Monitoring Weather Conditions
 

Schools. Education is our business, and so is safety. That includes making sure students get to and from school safely.

How do we determine if school is on a delayed start or cancelled? Weather and road conditions are closely monitored. Depending on when weather conditions are forecast, this may be ongoing through the night and early morning hours.

We determine whether school buses can safely navigate through the district. At the same time, we are also clearing sidewalks and parking areas at schools to make sure that when students get to school, they can walk safely to the building. We are fortunate that the road crews in Miami Township, Moraine and West Carrollton also work hard on neighborhood streets during adverse weather conditions. Building interiors are monitored to make sure everything is working including heating and water pipes. 

Montgomery county superintendents are also communicating with each other, but not all school districts are the same. Some neighboring districts are much larger and have rural roads. One example is the Valley View school district which has rural areas and different road conditions than we do in West Carrollton. Even the Miamisburg school district has road challenges that we don’t have because of the areas their buses must travel. What this means is though we communicate with other superintendents, not all school districts are making the same decision. 

 
What happens if bad weather occurs while students are at school? It is extremely rare that local school districts, including West Carrollton, make the decision to close early. We know that many students would be returning to an empty home. Even more dangerous, many children would return to a home they don’t have a key to enter which may leave them exposed to even more perils than just the weather. It is far safer for children to remain at school.
 

Because we are constantly monitoring conditions into the early morning, a decision to delay or close is usually not made until morning as we give our school maintenance and city road crews the opportunity to work. When a decision is made, we begin posting the information on Facebook at West Carrollton City Schools, Twitter at WC City Schools and the district web page at westcarrolltonschools.com. Local news channels, including 2, 7, 22 and 45 are notified so they may begin putting alerts on television. You may also be notified directly from the television station if you have signed up for a text alert from them. Phone calls are initiated beginning at 5:45 a.m. and continue until shortly after 6 a.m. 

 
We realize that delays and closings affect family schedules, and we do not make the decision lightly. We understand that no matter if we delay, close or stay open, not everyone will agree; however, know that many factors, especially student safety, are considered before a decision is made.