On occasion, it may become necessary to close school due to extreme weather conditions or other unusual circumstances. When this happens, the public will be notified through local radio and television stations, email, social media and Southmont Schools' Auto Dialing System and website. Please do not attempt to contact the district or individual school buildings as this ties up phone lines and resources and prevents us from making or receiving emergency calls. All efforts are made to contact parents and the media as soon as the decision is made.
School may be dismissed early due to extreme weather conditions or other factors. The media will be notified if this is necessary. If it appears that there may be a chance that school will be dismissed early, please tune to the local radio or television stations. Arrangements should be made in advance in preparation for possible early dismissal so that all students will know where they are to go.
If school is delayed, the same procedure as outlined above would be followed. If school is running on a two-hour delay schedule, you should expect the bus to pick up students two hours later than normal. Slight changes may need to be made depending on weather conditions.
If it becomes necessary to dismiss school early, delay school opening or cancel school completely because of weather, parents and students will be informed by the following outlets:
A great deal of thought, collaboration and fact-finding goes into the decision to disrupt normal school operations. Among those factors impacting that decision are:
In some instances, when all factors are considered, the best course of action is to delay the start of school for a period of time (usually two hours) to allow the weather to pass or road crews to better treat the highways. If we believe, ultimately, that conditions are severe enough that travel on roadways endangers students, parents and staff, we will cancel school. Typically, the district will make these decisions no later than 6:00 a.m., though factoring in weather forecasts and present conditions a decision could be made the night before.