SALT LAKE CITY — While it may seem like your child's school day could change any minute, school districts across the state are doing everything they can to keep everyone safe ahead of the winter storm.
Granite School District Community Outreach Director Ben Horsley and Davis School District Director of Communications Chris Williams are trying to make the best decisions for students and staff -- sometimes even up at abnormal hours to gather information.
"Our team is usually up in the middle of the night checking conditions throughout the district," Horsley said. "What impact to our ability to have operations meaning will our buses be able to roll on time, will our personal be able to clear this parking lot area and be able to clear areas in front of the snow so they can walk into the building and park."
Williams says Davis School District begins looking at weather patterns, forecasts, and road conditions as early as 3:30 in the morning.
"We call county dispatch, Davis county dispatch, we call UDOT, Utah Highway Patrol just to see how conditions are," Williams said.
The timing of announcements surrounding school day changes varies depending on the district and the storm.
"It's one of those things as soon as we're able to make a decision and we can know the forecast is going to impact our operations that's when we'll make that decision," Horsley said.
Several schools located in Granite, Salt Lake and Alpine School Districts switched to remote learning, something they believe the COVID-19 pandemic helped make more robust.
"Our at-risk families are at the forefront of our minds; most people might not be aware of this, but we actually have kids still come to school on a distance day," Horsley said. "We always want to maintain a warm and safe environment because we just know that so many of our families might not have that supervision or accessibility to food."
Davis County and others north of Salt Lake County seemed to have a milder version of the storm, so they chose to have a two-hour delay.
"We rely on the 2-hour late start it's the best of both worlds, it gives us the opportunity to educate them," Williams said. "Keep them safe, provide them meals, but also get them to school without any major problems."
Williams and Horsley say parents should make sure their contact information is up to date, so they get the information needed.
"We rely on texts, emails, phone calls, social media, the media, to spread the word that we're going to a 2-hour late start or if it ever happens a school closure," Williams said.
By getting the quickest and most accurate information, they hope parents will make the best decision for their circumstances.
"We want our families to be able to make decisions in the best interest in their families," Horsley said.
