Message From Superintendent Regarding Winter Weather

Linn-Mar Families:

This letter is intended to provide some context to today’s late announcement regarding the 2-hour delay and eventual school cancellation on December 4th. I also want to inform everyone of the procedures we normally follow in making weather-related decisions regarding late starts, early dismissals, or cancellations.

Each morning our Transportation Department assesses the road conditions beginning around 4:30 AM. On days when we are expecting dangerous weather, transportation departments and superintendents in several area districts communicate and coordinate regarding road conditions throughout the corridor, beginning the night before and early into the morning on the day of expected weather events. These actions are intended to provide timely information with the goal to announce any delays/cancellations by 5:30 AM, at the very latest. This time frame allows us to make any decisions prior to buses leaving our campus and to assist families with planning.

Student safety is always our top priority when making the decision to have school or not. Our second priority is to make timely decisions. We understand and appreciate the impact these decisions have on family schedules, childcare, work arrival, etc. We do not take the impact on families lightly. All school delays and cancellations are posted on the Linn-Mar website and social media sites, in addition to local TV and radio stations. The quickest way to receive push notifications is through our TXTWire notification system. To sign up for TXTWire, visit the district website (www.Linnmar.k12.ia.us), scroll to the bottom of the home page, and click on “emergency notifications”.

This morning, due to the unexpected development of freezing rain and quickly deteriorating road conditions after 6:00 AM, we were put into conflict with our two priorities (student safety and timely decision). As inconvenient as it was to make a late decision, the concern about student safety due to dealing with the unexpected ice on the roads was too great to hold school.

While our situation today mirrored several other area districts, we wanted to make our families aware of the processes we follow throughout the winter and for today’s unique circumstance. Please remember that today’s late notice is not our common practice, but was due to the timing and nature of the weather and the final decision was made in the best interest of student safety.

We appreciate your support of our schools and apologize for the inconvenience this unexpected announcement may have caused.