Parents and Students, Winter is here! I was wondering if Mother Nature would forget about this season, but unfortunately it doesnt look that way. A couple of reminders to pass along as we are in the winter weather season: 1) If your child is sick, please keep them home. If you have been following the news, we are gearing up for an unusually difficult flu season. If you have questions regarding when and if its ok to send your child to school, please contact Nurse Kenkel directly. 2) If it is determined to have a late start, early out, or no school due to weather, there are numerous ways the district(s) communicate it to parents. We contact all local radio stations as well as local TV stations and post it on Facebook. In addition, AHST utilizes school reach with a personalized message that calls, texts, and emails parents (this is the same communication method we used for PPEL vote and low lunch balances). If you have not received any programed messages from the school, please contact the office to make sure we have your correct contact information. Walnut utilizes a similar system that will either text or email parents depending on which service the parent has signed up for. If there is no school or an early out because of weather, there will not be night activities (that includes practice). If the district has not utilized these outlets to communicate a change due to weather...school is running as scheduled! Please do not call the school to ask. This may sound blunt, but realize we serve over 700 students between AHST and Walnut. It causes a communication logjam on our phone system and reduces our effectiveness of being able to operate in an efficient manner. 3) Student safety is our #1 concern. We are always well aware of what the weather forecast is and what the road conditions are (or potentially will be). With the number of square miles our district covers, it may very well be blizzard conditions in one portion of the district, and the sun shining in another. I hear often that schools are softer now (I toned down some of the analogies that I hear :) than they were in the past. Schools may be, but if having a 2 hour late start on a marginal morning ensures all our students get to school alive and safe, then those are good decisions to me. The other consideration we look at is the number of teenage drivers we have everyday. If you have not already done so, it is a great time to discuss with your child to slow down and use caution while driving in winter. Another area we know more about than we did 40 years ago is the danger of windchill. When it is determined that student exposure to windchill puts a child in danger, we may run late or not have school. Here is a link for winter weather warnings/advisory definitions: accuweather/en/weather-news/what-do-winter-weather-advisor/45104. There is not a set number, but when it gets to -25 and in a wind chill advisory, there is a potential for a late start. 4) I take winter decisions very seriously. We constantly monitor forecasts, communicate with other school districts, and are in contact with the Department of Transportation seeking information. It is my job to make sure our kids are safe at school, and that includes getting them to school. You as a parent ALWAYS have the responsibility to make decisions for your child. If you dont want your child to drive in the winter, you can tell them no. Thanks in advance for helping keep our kids safe and praying Mother Nature remains in a good mood. Thanks, Mr. Jesse Ulrich. Superintendent. A-H-S-T Community School District Walnut Community School District
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 17:51:49 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015