School districts make changes to their schedules due to severe weather threat

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — From early dismissals to canceled activities, school districts took extra precautions to keep kids safe on Monday due to the threat of severe weather.

Wichita

Wichita Public Schools, USD 259, remained open during the day but chose to cancel afternoon and evening events.

Wichita Public Schools announced on social media that it is taking these steps:

• All evening activities, practices and competitions are canceled.
• Latchkey will continue as scheduled. Parents are encouraged to pick up students early.
• Monday night’s BOE meeting will continue as scheduled. However, in-person student recognitions will not take place at the meeting.

“Just reminding families kids are safe, as part of our bond or commitment, all our buildings have tornado shelters so kids have a safe place to go,” said USD 259 Director of Operations Fabian Armendariz.

Armendariz says if a tornado warning is placed for any part of Wichita, every school in the district will seal kids and staff in an on-site FEMA tornado shelter. He says at that point parents will be unable to pick up kids until the threat is cleared. They can track that through notifications in ParentLink.

Parents will also not be able to access those FEMA shelters once they’re locked, but they may be able to get to other shelters on school grounds.

Wichita State University has asked students, faculty and staff to follow this link for information on in-person finals, employee reporting, and campus shelters: wsu.news/weather_may6 .

Arkansas City

Arkansas City’s USD 470 also canceled after-school activities and dismissed students early, before 2 p.m.

The goal was to make sure kids and bus drivers weren’t on the road during a storm.

Extra precautions are needed, a district spokesperson said, because the district is at high risk for severe storms and is included in the Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) tornado watch.

She said each elementary school in the district has FEMA storm shelters that the public can use.

Other closings and delays

Other schools in the area are making changes to Monday’s schedule as well. See the list below and on the KSN.com Closings and Delays page .

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