NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With Hutchinson USD 308 back in class on Wednesday after several days related to weather that happened to coincide with already scheduled off days because of parent/teacher conferences, USD 308 Superintendent Dr. Dawn Johnson explained a little bit of what goes in to the school on or off decision making process.
"All the Superintendents will get on a webinar with the Wichita office of the National Weather Service," Johnson said. "They'll start telling us out of Wichita what's coming and what it looks like."
As an example, on Monday they explained how severe the wind chills on Tuesday would be and what that could mean for exposed skin on kids walking to school or waiting for buses.
"I worked with the operations department and we worked with Durham Bus, who we outsource our bussing with, already talking about, some buses weren't starting, having some trouble with some busses," Johnson said. "Then, at 20 degrees below, it would be even more of a challenge and so, what does that look like? We have students that are waiting for buses and parents waiting to leave the house, because students haven't been picked up for buses."
USD 308 also does not have the rural road drifting concerns that are common in the districts that surround the city. Also, foodservice in USD 308 is centrally cooked and then taken out to attendance centers, so keeping food safe while doing that in the kind of cold we saw Tuesday is also difficult. In addition, they need to make sure sidewalks are clear and heat is working in all of the buildings appropriately.
There are additional instructional hours built into the school year in an effort to allow for weather cancellations not to make too big of an impact on the end of year calendar.
"We also build some buffer in there," Johnson said. "USD 308 is good to go. We still have three snow days left, even with some of the days that we've called off. We're comfortable with that, that helps a little bit, that you have a buffer in there."
USD 308 has also sent out a survey asking parents for assistance in setting up the 2024-2025 calendar. If you see a text from the school district about this, it is genuine, as they are still looking for feedback before they present a proposed calendar to the school board. They hope to do that in February.
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