Inclement
Weather and Emergency Closing Procedures
On rare occasions when mechanical failures occur in a school
building or when inclement weather develops after school is in session for the day, it may
become necessary to dismiss school early. While this is not likely to occur, the following
procedures are outlined for your information.
1. School Procedures
Local radio stations WPON, WJR and CKLW will be notified of school closings. However,
this method of communicating is not completely reliable since these messages are announced
at the station’s discretion.
In the elementary school grades each school operates a telephone fan-out system.
Building administrator will activate their school’s system when they are notified
there has been a change in the normal dismissal time.
The order of dismissal is: senior high, middle and elementary schools.
2. Bus
Transportation May Be Interrupted Because of Hazardous Highway
Conditions
It
is the policy of the Waterford School District not to operate its
buses when weather conditions cause hazardous travel for bus
riders. The decision whether buses will run when severe weather
conditions are eminent is made by the Superintendent after
consulting with public safety and school district transportation
officials. The procedures followed to determine whether or not
buses will run is as follows:
-
A call is made to the
Waterford Police Department for its appraisal of road conditions.
-
Two or more school
officials will personally inspect the various types of roads on which
buses travel in the district. They will then meet at the bus garage
where all available information is considered before the decision is
made to run all buses as usual or cancel all buses.
-
When weather conditions
in your immediate area make your child’s trip too hazardous, then it is
your discretion whether to keep your child at home. The Waterford School
District covers an area of approximately forty-two square miles, and
weather and traffic conditions can vary significantly in these large
areas.
3. Mechanical Breakdown or a Shortage of Bus Drivers
May Cause an Interruption of Service to Children on an Individual Bus Run
Instruct your child to wait only a reasonable time for his/her bus
(approximately 20 minutes) and then return home.
4. Suggested Parent Procedures
All parents must understand that telephone fan-out
systems operated by parent volunteers in each elementary schools can breakdown (i.e.,
persons on the list not at home, busy telephone circuits, incorrect telephone numbers,
etc.), therefore, it is impossible for authorities to assure all parents that they will be
notified of an early dismissal. It is imperative that parents discuss the possibility of
early dismissal thoroughly with their children and make certain they know where to go when
parents are not at home.
