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Snow Days
How the decision is made & what happens when we decide to close
A priority on safety. During inclement weather, our priority is the safety and welfare of our students and professional community. We also often rely on the decisions of some of our 17 sending public school districts as they provide transportation services for students and will often keep buses off the road in a snow event as a matter of public safety.
We know closing can be inconvenient. While safety is our priority, we know that snow days can be burdensome to families due to childcare and work schedules. So, please remember that we do not decide to close lightly.
No Delayed Openings. We do not have a delayed opening option because of the complexity of student travel within the region, with multiple entities transporting students.
The decision process. Each storm is different, but tracking a potential closing decision begins when a long-term forecast indicates that a significant weather event is possible. Considerations include current and forecasted weather, the readiness of our facilities to operate, and potential driving conditions.
The school relies on data from the National Weather Service, which provides regular updates on storms and the statistical probability of their impact. Whenever possible, we will try to make a closing decision the night before a weather event if there is a high degree of certainty about the forecast and storm impacts.
When an evening decision is not possible, the school’s administrative team members usually begin gathering information from local districts at 4:30 a.m. and make a closing decision by 5:45. However, in fast-changing conditions (i.e., freezing rain, clippers, lake effect snow), we could decide as late as 6:00 a.m.
Snow day communication. When we decide to cancel school, we will notify the community via our parent notification system with an automated phone call, text, and email. The notification system pulls contact information from Blackbaud, the school’s student information system, so it is imperative to update this. Many local media outlets are also alerted and broadcast our closing. Closing notification is also posted on The Albany Academies website and social media pages.
Make the safest decision for you. The regional nature of our enrollment is such that students and members of our professional community travel as far as 60 miles to come to school. We know that these commuters may have very different weather conditions in their locality than what we are experiencing on campus. Therefore, in some weather events, we may elect to remain open and rely on the judgment of families to determine whether travel to the school is safe for them. We will fully support these decisions and any needs that arise from them.
Please communicate your decision. If you believe it is unsafe for you to commute to school, either take the day off or delay your departure until local conditions improve. In either case, if we are open, please get in touch with us and let us know your decision.
Remote learning. The school will NOT be using remote learning on snow days. Accommodation for a reasonable number of snow days is designed into the school calendar. We can catch students up with missed classes upon returning to school and still meet the objectives in our lesson planning.
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