Estill County School Closing Information
The decision to cancel school or have a delay impacts many people in our community. We make the best decision, based on the information we have, keeping the safety of our students and staff as the number one priority. Our goal will be to make the best decision as soon as possible, in order to give students, their families, and our local employers’ ample time to deal with the various issues caused by school cancellation or a delay.
School Closing or Delay
If possible, our goal will be to make a decision about school the night before so everyone will have plenty of time to make plans for the coming day, but more often than not bad weather always seems to happen during the early morning hours.
When inclement weather is in the forecast, our morning begins around 4am. There are specific areas and roads we check while monitoring the current forecast from the National Weather Service. Once we have gathered all of our information, we try to make a decision by 5:30am. The decision is immediately posted on all television stations, Facebook, Twitter and One Call is activated. Here are the possible responses based on the information we have gathered.
Early Dismissal
During the school day we continually monitor the forecast when there is a threat of inclement weather. When snow starts to fall, everyone’s first instinct is to immediately dismiss school and most of the time we end up putting buses and student drivers on the road at the very worst time. With this in mind, we will usually try to wait until the end of the day to dismiss our students. If a student drives they may not be immediately released due to dangerous road conditions and no phone calls will be accepted by the high school staff asking for a student to check out.
If we have to dismiss early, we will use all means necessary to notify our parents in a timely manner. Dismissing early increases the potential for our students to arrive home with no parent or guardian waiting for them. As always, if a driver does not feel comfortable dropping off a student, they will transport them back to school if a parent cannot be reached.
Final Comments
When it’s all said and done, the weather has a mind of its own. We will always try to make the best decision possible based on the information available. There are a lot of factors that have to be considered when making this decision. Schools provide a safe warm place where students get breakfast and lunch during the cold winter months. Our goal is to be in school every day possible, but the safety of students, parents and employees is always our first priority.