January 24, 2023

Dear Columbus Academy Families,

It seems timely to reiterate how we handle weather that impacts our school days.

Columbus Academy makes decisions independently regarding whether or not to have school even when low temperatures, snow accumulation and wind chills compromise the busing from numerous school districts. If we choose to delay or close school, you will receive messages (possibly voice, email and text depending on what you have listed in MySchoolApp) from our new emergency contact system that should direct you to a webpage for Campus Updates that will provide further details on extracurriculars as they come in throughout the day.

“Cold Days” exist when school districts around us close due to wind chill factors at the time of bus pickup in the morning. We may not make that same decision to close because of the temperature. If we choose to have school on a day when buses do not run from school districts, we hope that you can find an alternative form of transportation. Your children’s safety is most important, however, and the decision about whether or not your children should go to school that day remains, as always, yours as parents/guardians. Your children will not be penalized in any way.

When there is inclement weather and you plan to be late in getting your children to school or feel that it is safer for them to be at home, the best way to notify us is via SchoolPass.

“Snow Days” are a little different because decisions to close school are often related to the condition of the roads at the time of the morning commute. So we may enact a “delayed start” when it appears that the difficulty of getting to school has more to do with the road conditions at an appointed hour than the likelihood that they will be compromised throughout the morning. The same allowances for absences and tardiness will be given for delayed-start days as well.

Finally, when making decisions about closing school, we factor in the conditions at school (the amount of maintenance and snow removal achieved by 7:00 a.m.) and on the surrounding roads in Gahanna. We cannot know what the conditions are near your neighborhood and hope you will use your best judgment when attempting to get to school.

Please know that we believe there are few things as wonderful as the serendipity of a sudden day off – for both students and faculty! However, if we have multiple days that we may have to take off from school due to weather, we are likely to begin to ask students (particularly in the older grades) to do work while they are at home.

I hope you all get a chance to be outside in the wonderful winter white before it vanishes all too soon!

My best,

Melissa