It is that time of the year again – North Dakota winter. Districts within the state operate schools and school bus routes during periods of severe winter weather conditions.  When road conditions deteriorate after each significant snowfall, administrators struggle with the question of whether or not to cancel or postpone school.

The decision to close down or postpone a school system is very serious because it impacts numerous students and their families. While it is very serious when students miss class time, the winter weather closing of the South Heart Public Schools has even greater impact because it requires working parents to take family leave from work to care for students or make emergency daycare arrangements on very short notice.

Generally emergency school closings due to severe winter weather conditions only occur when road conditions make it too dangerous to operate school buses, or when a level of snowfall has occurred in which it is unlikely that route operations can proceed due to impassible roads. In both of these situations the weather conditions make it impossible for school bus drivers to report to work and would result in many buses becoming stuck, or caught behind other stuck vehicles.

From time to time throughout the school year, weather may force a change in the normal operating routine of the district. The district has in place a process to make decisions and the ability to communicate information to parents, students, and staff in various matters about changes to the normal daily routine.

The decision to cancel or delay school will be made by 6:00 A.M.  Our alert system (Thrillshare) will notify everyone within minutes, provided they have the necessary information documented within PowerSchool. Our automated system assumes that all contact information has been correctly entered in PowerSchool.  This includes Father Day Phone, Father Email, Home Phone, Mother Day Phone, and Mother Email.  If you do NOT receive a future message via one of these methods and you feel that you should have, please contact Miss Urban at the school to make sure we’ve entered all your contact information correctly.  We heavily rely upon up-to-date accurate contact information being entered correctly in PowerSchool when contacting parents and staff.

If you decide not to take advantage of our instant alert system, please turn your television on early during stormy mornings, as will notify our local television stations KQCD and KXMA reporting these announcements on a timely basis throughout their broadcast.

All families should have an emergency inclement weather plan in place that can be put into action on short notice. Ensure that your children have an alternate place to stay if you must be at work on a day when school has been delayed or cancelled. Ensure a neighbor, family member or center is able to care for or receive students.

Our bus drivers do an excellent job of managing the daunting task of transporting our students. Our average bus route is approximately 80 miles and a little over one hour and a half in ride time (on a good day). During some of our winter months some routes can approach two hours in ride time. It is vitally important that our students are dressed, or, have access to winter survival gear in the unfortunate event a bus breaks down or gets stranded.

Please help us to ensure the safety of your child on our busses. Take a few minutes and check your child’s winter attire and update your PowerSchool information.