There are three parts to this notice.
Weather Policy
September, 2004
Dear Parents:
With the hurricane season upon us and the winter season approaching, a review of our weather related dismissal procedures is timely.
During adverse weather conditions, the decision to cancel or delay the opening of school is primarily informed by the need to ensure the safety of students, as well as to enable staff to report safely for duty. The final decision will ultimately be made by the Superintendent of Schools. Typically, I begin assessing conditions between 4:00-4:30 a.m. unless weather conditions the previous evening warrant a cancellation. My decision will be based upon information from a variety of sources, such as the weather service, the police and public works departments, and Mr. Paul Engemann, our Director of Facilities and Construction, who assesses road and parking lot conditions.
If school must be cancelled due to weather related emergencies, the decision will be made no later than 5:30 a.m. You can expect the announcement of the cancellation within a half hour on radio and TV stations, as well as on our website http://www.darienps.org. You will receive an e-mail from http://www.ctweather.com if you register. (See attached information.) Do not call your school or the central office, as our phone lines cannot handle excessive volume. Your best source of information is the media and websites. Since a decision to cancel is rarely made the night before, the most common time to learn of my decision is after 5:45 a.m.
When school is cancelled, no activities will be held in the buildings and all school-related and extracurricular events will be cancelled. A decision to close schools for the day, once made, will not change.
If schools are delayed due to weather, the decision also will be made by 5:30 a.m. The decision to have a 90 minute delayed opening is based upon the available information that travel and weather conditions are expected to sufficiently improve to open schools. However, parents should continue listening to designated radio and TV stations following the announcement of a delayed opening. If travel conditions do not improve or get worse, the delayed opening may be changed to a full day closing. Any such change will be communicated via the media and website sources.
Occasionally, adverse weather conditions occur after the school day has begun. If weather forecasts and conditions indicate that an early dismissal would be in the best interest of our students and staff, we will communicate such a decision via radio, TV, our website and www.ctweather.com. These sources will provide more information than can be gained through a call to the schools or central office. An early dismissal decision will be made no later than 9:30 a.m. Again, media announcements will occur within a half hour. It is critical that parents have an emergency plan in place for child care should children be dismissed early from school.
Please note that early dismissal times for weather related emergencies are earlier than the scheduled early dismissal times on the calendar, such as conference days and days before certain holidays. Also note that, regardless of whether we have an emergency closing or a scheduled early dismissal, kindergarten students will be dismissed along with all the other students in grades 1-5.
In the event of an emergency closing due to inclement weather, all students,
including kindergartners, will be dismissed according to the following schedule:
High School 10:30 a.m. Hindley, Royle, Tokeneke 11:00 a.m.
Middlesex 10:30 a.m. Holmes, Ox Ridge 11:30 a.m.
All students will have the same bus stops as they had in the morning. No lunches will be served at school on those days, but elementary students will have a snack prior to dismissal.
On regularly scheduled early dismissal days, all students, including kindergartners, will also have the same bus stops as they had in the morning. Lunch, however, will be served to all students. The regular early dismissal times are:
High School 12:20 p.m. Hindley, Royle, Tokeneke 1:00 p.m.
Middlesex 12:30 p.m. Holmes, Ox Ridge 1:25 p.m.
In the final analysis, parents make the decision whether they will send their children to school on those days when inclement weather is not sufficiently serious to close or delay opening the schools. Rest assured that we will do our very best to make timely, rational decisions, based upon the best weather and travel information available at the time. Your understanding and cooperation is always appreciated when these decisions are made.
Sincerely yours,
Mary Jo Kramer, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
Part 2
E-Mail Weather Alert
This free email notification service is provided to you by the Connecticut Weather Center, Inc. to enable you to receive notification when weather related cancellations, announcements, or other notifications have been posted by any of the participating educational institutions, libraries, organizations, and businesses. Darien, as well as the majority of school districts throughout the state, participates in using the CT Weather Center for posting weather and non-weather related essential announcements. Now you can be notified at work or home if Darien posts an important information announcement. Weather related announcements would post cancellations of schools meetings or activities, delayed openings and early dismissals. The e-mail notification system will inform you of the posting and link you to the Center's home page. One click on "Cancellations and Notifications" and a second click on "Schools" will bring you to the posted message.
To register for this free service, go to www.ctweather.com. and complete these
4 easy steps:
1. Scroll down the menu on the left to "e-Notifications".
2. Click on "e-notifications" and then click on "Schools".
3. Complete the easy registration process by submitting your e-mail address.
You can duplicate this process and submit more than one address if needed.
4. Within 72 hours, you will receive a confirmation request. Reply to the request
by clicking on the link and follow the directions to access your account and
identify Darien in the pull-down menu. You must identify and submit Darien
as a notification district - this is not automatic. You can identify as many
districts as needed by duplicating the identify and submit process. It is very
easy and user friendly.
Act soon so that you can complete the process and receive notification of
important posted announcements. A special thanks to ctweather.com. and while
you are there, check out this fabulous information site.
Part 3
Radio Stations AM Setting FM Setting
WEBE-Bridgeport -- 108.0
STAR 99.9-Bridgeport -- 99.9
WICC-Bridgeport 600 --
WLAD-Danbury 800 --
WCBS-New York 880 --
WDAQ-Danbury -- 98.3
WGCH-Greenwich 1490 --
WNLK-Norwalk 1350 --
WEFX-Norwalk -- 95.9
WSTC-Stamford 1400 --
WKHL-Stamford -- 96.7
WTIC-Hartford 1080 96.5
Cablevision - Channel 12
WTNH-Channel 8-New Haven
Channel 3
WVIT, NBC 30 Connecticut
WNBC, Channel 4
Web Site -- Darien Public Schools http://www.darienps.org
The school system itself, except for a major emergency or extraordinary road
conditions, will remain open until the usual closing time. For everyone's safety,
we suggest that you allow your child to be transported home on his/her regular
school bus.
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DELAYED OPENING ANNOUNCEMENT
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During the year there may be times when reports will indicate that the weather
will clear and the traffic conditions will improve in a short period of time.
Based on these reports, the Superintendent will delay the opening of schools
for 90 minutes. The schedule would be as follows.
Regular Opening Delayed Opening
Darien High School 7:40 a.m. 9:10 a.m.
Middlesex Middle School 8:00 a.m. 9:30 a.m.
Elementary Schools:
Tokeneke/Hindley/Royle 8:30 a.m. 10:00 a.m.
Ox Ridge/Holmes 8:55 a.m. 10:25 a.m.
Kindergarten students would follow the same delayed schedule in the A.M. and go home at the regular kindergarten P.M. dismissal time: Tokeneke, Hindley, Royle -- 1:30 p.m.; Ox Ridge and Holmes -- 1:55 p.m.
The announcement over the radio, television and cablevision stations will
state that the Darien Public Schools will start 90 minutes later than usual.
However, please keep listening to the radio as a delayed opening may change
to a closing, if the situation gets worse.
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EARLY DISMISSAL SCHEDULE FOR WEATHER RELATED EMERGENCIES
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Darien High School: 10:30 a.m.
Middlesex Middle School: 10:30 a.m.
Hindley, Royle, Tokeneke: 11:00 a.m. all students including kindergartners
Holmes, Ox Ridge 11:30 a.m. all students including kindergartners