Español
November 3, 2022
Dear DCSD Staff and Families,
I hope you are staying warm on this chilly evening. I wanted to take a moment to let you know that our amazing Snow Team is closely monitoring the incoming winter storm. With this being one of the first storms of the season, I thought it would be a good time to quickly provide a little more information about how we determine when a delay or closure (snow day) is needed versus when we decide to keep schools open as normal.
Calling snow days (or not) is always a challenge! Years ago, when I first became a school leader, I had a recurring dream that during a terrible storm I decided to call a snow day. In my dream, I wake up the next morning to melted snow, a blue sky, birds singing, and…an overflowing inbox. :-)
The decision to close, delay or keep a school open during inclement weather is never taken lightly. We always keep the safety of our students, staff, and parents top of mind. Factors including snowfall, wind chill, road conditions and more are all taken into consideration. While conditions can vary across our district, many of our families and staff travel across the district to get to school, so closure decisions generally apply to the entire school district (unless otherwise indicated). Please watch this video to learn more about what goes into a snow day decision. You can also find more information on our website.
We often hear from families that they would prefer DCSD call a delay or closure in advance (such as the evening prior) so that they can make arrangements for child care, or to miss a day of work. At times, it’s easy to predict the evening before that weather will warrant a delay or closure the next day. However, calling a delay or closure in advance also comes with some trade-offs, such as more risk that the call to delay or close could end up being the wrong call (Colorado storms are known for being much worse or much more mild than forecasted). We take all of this into consideration when evaluating weather conditions.
Should a snow day or delay be called, we send an email and text to our families and staff (generally no later than 5 am), and we also post the information on the DCSD website, social media channels, and local news stations. If you don’t hear from us, then school is open as normal (if you attend a DCSD charter school be sure to check in with them for their status).
Please keep in mind that on days when our Snow Team is activated but a delay or closure is not called – we respect the decision of our parents to keep their child home, if necessary. Please call your child's school and this will be an excused absence.
For those students (and adults alike) who choose to place spoons under their pillows or wear their pajamas backward tonight, we will see how this storm develops :-)
Thanks for taking the time to read this and have a wonderful evening!
Erin Kane
Superintendent
Douglas County School District