Many factors are taken into consideration when deciding to close schools, but the safety of students and staff is the number one consideration. Many parties work through the night and early morning to determine the best course of action and to clear the roads and our school sites. Questions that help determine our decision on these days:
- Can our school bus and snow removal teams do their jobs?
- Will we be able to provide meals?
- What is the forecast for later in the day?
More than anything, we consider the impact on families who are counting on us to be open because they do not have access to other childcare and cannot afford to take a day off at a moment's notice. We also provide meals for hundreds of families who count on the food we provide for breakfast and lunch every day.
So ultimately we ask, does the current situation justify disrupting 86,000 students' families and their often basic human needs and 14,000 employee schedules, plus the expense to the school district? Most often, the answer is no. Because of all these reasons, we will always do whatever we can to have schools open every day.
Many often ask, do you evaluate the mountain school areas differently/separately from the more metro area locations? YES. We are aware of weather conditions throughout our district boundaries every day. The mountain areas are evaluated differently using many agencies and experts, including spotters and people located in these mountain areas. However, again, conditions must be deemed extreme enough to warrant closing, based on the reasons explained on this webpage. We work closely with county crews to evaluate and clear these areas, and our own Jeffco staff often focus on more impacted areas during weather events.
Jeffco Public Schools rarely takes snow days; that is the organizational history and culture. Like mentioned above, we live in Colorado and expect to have snowy conditions many times of the year. Unless the storm is extreme, school will not be canceled. We know the definition of “extreme” varies from person to person, but parents can always make the call not to send their children to school that day if they feel it is unsafe.