Wednesday, March 21, 2018

School closing protocol
So you wake up in the morning, and the National Weather Service has snow in the forecast, and then you learn school has been cancelled. Today Cocke County schools are closed, using the last of the ten days in the school schedule for inclement weather. Lots of work goes into the decision to delay or cancel classes, according to Cocke County Assistant Director of Schools Casey Kelly. "It's based solely on safety. If a school bus cannot safely negotiate it's route then we are gonna delay or cancel school. In addition to the students who are riding buses, we also consider that there are a large number of students who are driving to school but have not had alot of experience driving in inclement weather. And parents driving their children to school also are put at risk." Recently several school buses that had no students on board became stuck on a snow covered road. "Grassy Fork is at a higher elevation. Weather forecasts may call for flurries but in the higher elevations, it is more than flurries. And they stick on the road. That's why on occasion we delay a bus from coming off the mountain for a short while," explained Kelly. "When a decision has to be made, in addition to the weather service, we use the sheriff's department, central dispatch, the highway department and we call bus drivers who live in outlying areas. Our Transportation Supervisor Chris Norton and our school resource officers also drive the roads and look for trouble spots." The final decision regarding school closing is made by Director of Schools Manney Moore based on student safety.


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