If roads are safe, schools stay open... unless it gets dangerously cold.

Safety is never just about wind chill. Mix up the right combination of temperature, humidity and wind in the atmosphere, and we can get icing conditions at 30 degrees Fahrenheit and above. What's more, sometimes, conditions can go from safe to icy in less than an hour. Some areas in our district change faster than others. Since we must delay or close school almost three hours before the first class, there is plenty of opportunity to make a good faith decision that turns out wrong. We do our best to err on the side of safety. When temperatures plummet, we pay attention to the thermometer, barometer, anemometer, and any other ‘ometers that can help us predict the weather. When the combination of ambient temperature and wind speed pushes the effective temperature (wind chill) down to –18 degrees, we know we are in the danger zone for frostbite. Once the windchill nears –18 degrees, we know that exposed skin can suffer frostbite in 30 minutes. Cold weather sweeping in with humidity, snow, ice and winds, our decision is fairly straightforward. Cold weather is one of the factors in our decision about what constitutes unsafe conditions. We encourage you to use the National Weather Service's online chart and calculator to explore and calculate wind chills, so you can make informed decisions before your family heads outside and into cold weather.