Welcome to the first day of school in the New Year! It's just a bit late. So while we enjoyed an extra day yesterday, it seems timely to reiterate how we handle weather that impacts our school days.
A few years ago, Columbus Academy began to make decisions in a more independent fashion regarding whether or not to have school even when low temperatures and wind chills compromised the busing from numerous school districts.
"Cold Days" exist when school districts around us close due to wind chill factors at the time of bus pickup in the morning. We may not make that same decision to close because of the temperature. If we choose to have school on a day when buses do not run from school districts, we hope that you can find an alternative form of transportation. However, your child's safety is most important and the decision about whether or not your child should go to school that day remains, as always, yours as parents. Your child will not be marked unexcused and will face no penalty for being absent from school that day.
In these circumstances, if you plan to be late in getting your child to school or feel that it is safer for your child to be at home, all we ask is that you please contact the appropriate division office(s):
Snow days are a little different because decisions to close school are often related to the condition of the roads at the time of the morning commute. So we may begin to enact "delayed starts" when it appears that the difficulty of getting to school has more to do with the road conditions at an appointed hour than the likelihood that they will be compromised throughout the morning. The same allowances for absences and tardiness will be given for delayed-start days as well.
In the case of Monday, we did not have a delayed start because our grounds crew was not going to be able to get the campus free of ice in time for a mid-morning arrival.
I hope you all get a chance to be outside in the wonderful winter white before it vanishes all too soon!
My best,
Melissa
Head of School
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