As we turn towards winter, the chance for school cancelations are increasing by the day. To combat that the Columbia Public School District has a two-hour late start schedule in place which would decrease the amount of snow days due to early morning inclement weather.
The two-hour late start schedule would only be used if the district believes that early morning inclement weather would clear off later in the day and be safe for students to attend school.
Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education for Columbia Public Schools’, Jolene Yoakum said the two-hour late start plan would allow extra time for the district to clear off roads and sidewalks and make them safe for staff and students. Yoakum also said the extra time would allow for weather conditions to improve.
“Last year we had to call off a couple of days just because of the cold temperatures, but by a couple hours later the temperature had raised enough to where it would have been okay for kids to safely wait for their bus transportation,” said Yoakum.
Michele Parker is a parent who said the district is doing the right thing by allowing the weather conditions a couple extra hours to improve and be safe for her kids to make it to school safely.
“Having teenagers that are driving to school now, I appreciate them using that time to clear up the roads and trust that they’ll make good decisions if it’s not gonna clear up,” said Parker.
By starting two-hours late, the district would be allowed to count the day as a full day of school. The district said it understands there will still be some snow days, it just hopes that this plan will help reduce the amount of them.
