EMERGENCY CLOSURE GUIDELINES
On rare occasions we have to close school because of loss of water or power/heat or sudden severe snowstorms. When we are in the midst of a school day, closure decisions are made only when we will compromise the health and safety of children by remaining open. We will telephone parents to come and pick up their child on such occasions. If they are unavailable, their emergency contacts are called. Junior High students will be allowed to call their own parents. Staff will always remain at the school until the last parents have arrived.
Should school be closed for any reason, the school reserves the right to reschedule make-up days as needed, or not. Such days may occur within the existing calendar, or as an extension to it. Any prepaid daycare fees will be applied to the make-up days. No refunds will be given because of emergency closures.
We have also experienced in recent years an earthquake large enough to cause worried parents to swamp our phone lines. We do ask that you try not to flood our phone lines immediately in case of such a widespread emergency. Though we completely appreciate the level of concern that one feels about family at such times, we need to keep our phones open so that we can contact the parents of anyone who might be injured or to get help.
All phone systems, including cellular, become overloaded in these events so avoiding the impulse to get on the phone and call people is good for all. Our school emergency procedures state that our first phone calls shall be made to summon emergency aid, then a message will be placed on our voice mail, then parents of any injured children will be contacted. We will only begin to notify others when emergencies are tended to. If you do need to call us, please keep your call as brief as possible.
We also understand that parents may come to school to lend assistance in the case of emergency. We appreciate this help and have specific emergency procedures developed in our Incident Command Systems for such occasions. We do ask that you check in with the Building Supervisors and follow their instructions rather than taking any action on your own. Also, please watch your conversations at such times. Our goal is to reassure and comfort children, not to present them with more frightening information gleaned from parents discussing what they have heard on the news. All students of all ages must be signed out at a central location before they are taken home in an emergency. Please remember to do this so we can keep track of everyone and relay messages to others in a family who are equally concerned about the whereabouts of children. Make sure you have as many people as possible authorized to pick your child up in the event of colossal traffic jams in widespread emergency events.