Closed for the cold: How one superintendent makes the decision to close school for winter weather

TIFFIN, Iowa (KCRG) - With the deep freeze making a return in the forecast we’re about to see many schools delaying the start of classes by two hours, or even closing because of the cold weather.

”The main focus is this. We always want to make sure that the staff and the students are safe,” said Clear Creek Amana Community School District Interim Superintendent Joseph Brown.

Those cancelled school days and even cold days were something many of us looked forward to as a child.

”The bottom line is, we live in the north central part of this country. And we’re going to have weather. We don’t have hurricanes like they have in the south, and we don’t have earthquakes like they have out in the west. But we do have snow storms. And we do have cold windy conditions,” said Brown.

But the decision to close school for the day isn’t one made lightly.

”I start getting phone calls at five o’clock in the morning. I’m on a list serve with a number of superintendent in the Cedar Rapids region. We communicate very strongly. What one school does, we try to kind of complement each other, we don’t want to be a lone ranger. We do look at issues such as weather. We look at the temperature and we also look at the wind chill,” said Brown.

Interim superintendent for Clear Creek Amana Community School District Joseph Brown said he also works closely with his bus director when factoring in his decision.

Brown added if he decides to close in the morning, they try to let parents know by 5:30 am... however he said he’s been seeing a trend of notifying parents the night before.

”Being at the day care I see how it affects other families sometimes and it can be kind of hard, but I think everyone pretty much figures it out. I think Clear Creek does a great job,” said Ami Howe, Parent.

But no matter what decision is made, Brown said if a parent feels unsafe sending their child to school, keep them home.

”As a superintendent I will always respect the personal wishes of an individual parent because children are very important. You can’t replace them. And we don’t want anyone hurt,” said Brown.

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