If it’s necessary to close school due to inclement weather or other emergency reasons, announcements will be made via the district’s “push notification” system, this website and the district’s Facebook page.
When school is closed, all related activities, including athletic events and student activities, will not take place.
What’s involved when determining whether or not to close school?
There’s a lot going on behind the scenes before Minisink Valley makes this decision, the first always being the safety of our students, faculty and staff.
In addition to safety, other considerations include:
- Timing: A decision must be made before buses leave to pick up students, students head out to bus stops or begin walking to school, and parents, students and staff start driving to school.
- Road conditions: In bad weather, the severity of road conditions may vary within district boundaries. All roads need to be passable for buses to begin their routes.
- Staff attendance: Some staff members may not be able to make it to work due to weather conditions and students must be properly supervised.
- Buses: Extreme cold weather can affect bus operations.
- Unsupervised students: Students in school are supervised, while students at home may not be.
- Loss of breakfast and lunch: Some students and their families rely on their schools to provide healthy meals.
- Loss of class time: Studies show that even a small number of missed days has an impact on student learning.
- Scheduled events: On any school day, there are planned events that would need to be canceled or rescheduled if school is closed.
- School calendar: New York State requires districts to meet a required number of instructional hours per school year. If school closures cause a district to dip below that requirement, vacations might be shortened or the school year extended.
- Delay/early release: These options allow for some flexibility to deal with the timing of a storm and still have an instructional day.
We appreciate your continued understanding and awareness!