With many schools cancelling and delaying school this week due to the harshest elements of winter in Iowa, area superintendents have tough choices to make when it comes to pushing days and hours back to make-up days or in June. Superintendent Greg Ebeling with Pella Schools says they do their best to make decisions based on safety, and try to delay and cancel in conjunction with Pella Christian Schools.
“There’s three of us that drive the roads: my transportation director, myself, and Pella Christian Elementary Principal David De Jong,” Ebeling says. “What Pella Christian and Pella always do is try to do the same thing when it comes to winter weather, because our buses routes are about the same, and actually, Pella Christian’s buses routes go farther than ours do.”
In Knoxville, Superintendent Cassi Murra and the district’s transportation director travel along hard surface and gravel roads in the district to determine if staff and students can travel safely. She says throughout the process, they consult with city and county road departments as well as fellow superintendents. In a statement to KNIA/KRLS News, Murra says that weather-related decisions are the some of the toughest to make because there are numerous factors, but to her, safety is still the number one concern.
“[The student’s] safety in traveling to and from our buildings, potentially having to wait outside for buses or a ride, as well as the potential that if we cancel school, some children may be left home alone all factor into our discussions when contemplating a delay or cancellation,” Murra says.
Both superintendents say the process begins as soon as the National Weather Service begins issuing advisories. Ebeling says when they know conditions will be like the storm we had in the county on Monday, they try to issue a two-hour delay the night before if they are aware that some roads will still be in tough shape when the sun rises.
“We want people to know prior to–or at–6 a.m. that school is going to be two hours late or if it’s cancelled because we know people have to get to work pretty early,” Ebeling says.
Stay tuned to KNIA/KRLS and visit the homepage of KNIAKRLS.com for the latest cancellation and delay information. We have more with Ebeling about Pella’s policies on Let’s Talk Pella.