Given the events of the past two days I imagine that there are questions about the process that I
use to decide whether or not to close school. I have provided a description of my thought
process. Please note that whenever a decision is made about school closings I am in direct
contact with Dr. Swoboda, Dr. Hutton and Mr. Lind, the Superintendents from our feeder
districts and well as my fellow Lake County Superintendents. At the end of the day however, the
responsibility for the decision is mine.
The first consideration of course is always student’s safety. Tied directly to that is whether or not
our buses will start and the conditions of the roads which tie directly to the length of time that
students need to wait for the bus. If the buses are running and the roads are not snow packed and
the air temperature is not significantly below zero generally the decision would be made to not
cancel school. The other weather consideration obviously is how windy it is. If the winds are
mild even with a below zero air temperature the decision would likely be made to not cancel
school. If on the other hand the winds are exceptionally strong and the air temperature is below
zero and the roads are snow packed the decision might more likely be to cancel school because
there would be a longer wait time on the bus stop in very windy conditions.
After considering these factors the next thing that I consider is the number of days if any that
have already been missed and the time of the year. We have at least 8 more weeks during which
we might have excessive cold and snow. We have five emergency days built into the school
calendar all of which need to be made up. We used one of the five days yesterday. Given that
weather forecasting is a very inexact science I need to make a best guess about how accurate the
weather reports are so that if possible I use the emergency days wisely, hopefully avoiding
having to use all of them without compromising student safety. Deciding when to schedule the
make- up days also has ramifications. If for example we used all five emergency days, one
solution would be to cancel spring break and make up the five days then. I am sure you can
imagine that this would be a very unpopular decision as many families plan trips during spring
break including college visits. The other option for make up days is to add those days to the end
of the school year. This also has ramifications because many of our students attend sports camps,
take summer school classes or work summer jobs which they have often scheduled immediately
following the end of the school year. Adding days at the end of the year would disrupt the plans
of many students and again many people would be unhappy about that.
So this is a long winded way to say that the decision to cancel school is complex and also not an
exact science. The advantage that we have at the high school is the late start because high school
students can stay home for two hours without parental supervision. Elementary districts and unit
districts, districts like Lake Zurich, Wauconda, Round Lake, which cover kindergarten through
12th grade, generally are not able to do a late start because younger children would not be able to
stay home alone. The rationale for late starts is related to the prediction about the temperature
and the traffic congestion. If the prediction is that the temperature is going up as the day moves
on, which is the prediction today, then I am more likely to consider a late start because even if
the temperature does not go up the roads are less congested later in the morning resulting in a
shorter wait time at the bus stop.
Having said this, I would never ask anyone to do something that they feel is unsafe so parents
always have the right to keep their student at home on days like today without any negative
consequence for the student. Regardless of the decision that I make parents always have the last
word about what is in the best interest of their students.
Thank you for your patience as we manage winter in the Midwest.