Snow cancels Laurel School DIstrict for 4 days

Jan. 23—Students in Laurel County got an extended break from classes last week as snow and arctic temperatures blanketed southeastern Kentucky.

Laurel County School District had previously scheduled a planning day for teachers prior to last weekend's snow storm. Students were dismissed from classes on Friday, Jan. 12 and Monday, Jan. 15 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) was a non-instructional day as well.

But the snowstorm that hit late Sunday and continued into the remainder of the week had students missing four additional days.

With wintry weather already in the forecast, Laurel County School Superintendent Denise Griebel and school officials were on top of the potential for missed school days and had sent letters detailing the procedures taken in the event the weather predictions were accurate.

"With the winter season upon us, we sent home letters with the students the week we returned from break explaining what steps we take in those cases," she said.

The letter states that the utmost question determining when to cancel school centers around student safety. Are road conditions safe to transport students on buses? Are bus turnarounds and roadways clear and safe for travel? That is determined by school officials actually taking to the roadways to see if conditions are hazardous for students and bus drivers. Road conditions, wind chill, outside temperature, safety for students on sidewalks and parking lots, precipitation and expected precipitation and other factors come into play during this decision making situation.

"We have school personnel that go out and check the roads," Griebel said. "We have a lot of backroads and side roads where buses run and we check those especially. If the buses can't run, we don't have school."

School cancellations also apply to extra-curricular activities that could include club and organization meetings, as well as athletic events. If those events are being held, a notice will be sent out to parents of students.

When conditions are obviously dangerous for students, the school cancellations are posted on local TV and radio stations as soon as possible. The school district also has a phone notification system that calls the main contact phone number of students. The parent letter states that cancellations will be sent out as early as possible but always by 6 a.m. of the specific day in question.

Cancellations can also be found on the Laurel County Schools website — www.laurel.kyschools.us, on their Facebook page, or by downloading their app — Laurel County Schools KY — on the iOS App Store or Android Play Store and enable the Notifications.

When those roadways are unfit for travel, school officials then weigh three choices: cancel school, have early dismissal or declare an NTI (Non Traditional Instruction) day.

"Last week we just canceled school rather than have NTI days," Griebel said. "What many people don't realize is that if we have an NTI day, the teachers must still report to their classrooms to do instruction for the students. We have teachers who live in different parts of the county, and some in other counties, who would have to drive to school. We consider the road conditions for staff too as we don't want to risk their safety either, so we chose to just cancel school."

The Kentucky Department of Education only allows school districts to declare 10 NTI days per year, she added.

"Some school districts have already used four NTI days," Griebel explained. However, with this being just the first winter month of the second half of the academic year, more weather-related school cancellations could loom in the future two months.

"Some districts may do things differently, but we would rather cancel school when deemed appropriate to keep our staff and students safe," she continued.

Kentucky school districts are mandated to hold 170 instructional days — or 1,062 instructional hours — each year.

"We do go extra minutes every day so we always have some time banked for the year if we need to use that time," Griebel said. "Right now our last instructional day for students is May 17, so we're good at this point to make up days and still be out before June."

"We just never know about Mother Nature and what the weather will be, especially in winter," Griebel added. "Closer to the end of the year, we do a revised calendar approved by the board, if we need to make up any days and indicating when the last day of school will be."