A letter from Superintendent Lolli

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Determining whether to delay or close school is a very difficult decision.

The district uses a weather team to make the decision. The DPS district weather team is made up of people who drive the roads, people who check the forecast and wind chill/heat index numbers, and people who talk to safety officials in the City of Dayton.  This team begins the process around 2:30 AM on a morning when bad weather is predicted.  Around 3:30 the team has a conversation about the conditions and makes a decision.

If the decision is a delay, the team reconvenes around 6:30 AM to make sure that the decision to delay does not need to be changed to a decision to close.

When unexpected weather conditions arise, like yesterday, the team quickly starts the same process, only it occurs when the unexpected conditions are discovered.  Yesterday that was around  4:30AM.  Once it was determined at 7:00AM that the ice around the city was not going to melt enough for buses to safely transport students, the district closed.

On days where there is no snow or ice accumulation but very cold temperatures, the weather team reviews the wind chill index and predicted temperatures for the morning hours.  The predicted temperatures help to determine if the conditions would be better with a delay or not.

In today’s situation, the predicted temperatures indicated that a delay would not make any difference.  With no snow or ice and a wind chill of less than -15 degrees, school opened on time.

Please remember that any time you feel that the road conditions or weather conditions are unsafe for your child, you can keep your student home.  Please notify the school and state the reason for the absence.  It is counted as “excused” in this situation.

Safety is the district’s first consideration in weather situations.  The district weather team does their best to make the correct decision each and every time inclement weather occurs.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth J. Lolli, Ph.D.
Superintendent, Dayton Public Schools

PDF Version of Letter