PITTSBURG, KS.---- When snow and ice threaten southeast Kansas, Pittsburg School Superintendent Destry Brown has one thing in mind, student safety.
It's his responsibility to decide whether students get a snow day or have to make the trek to school. The process is lengthy. First, comes the waiting and paying close attention to mother nature.
"Of course, we're always monitoring the weather forecast," states Destry Brown, USD 250 Superintendent.
Then calls are made. The first is to the National Weather Service.
"They give us a good ideas as far as the precipitation that we are going to get and they also talk about road conditions," says Brown.
Brown also makes calls to the city, police department, and sheriff's office to find out what they're seeing. So the call could be made hours before buses roll. If they're not, Brown and a crew will head out at 4 in the morning to test city streets.
"We drive the routes we might be on if we were on a bus," says Brown.
Focusing on the side and rural streets.
"They're usually the last to get cleared off, and that's where most of our kids live, on the side streets. So we drive those to just see what they're like," says Brown.
It's his responsibility to decide whether students get a snow day or have to make the trek to school. The process is lengthy. First, comes the waiting and paying close attention to mother nature.
"Of course, we're always monitoring the weather forecast," states Destry Brown, USD 250 Superintendent.
Then calls are made. The first is to the National Weather Service.
"They give us a good ideas as far as the precipitation that we are going to get and they also talk about road conditions," says Brown.
Brown also makes calls to the city, police department, and sheriff's office to find out what they're seeing. So the call could be made hours before buses roll. If they're not, Brown and a crew will head out at 4 in the morning to test city streets.
"We drive the routes we might be on if we were on a bus," says Brown.
Focusing on the side and rural streets.
"They're usually the last to get cleared off, and that's where most of our kids live, on the side streets. So we drive those to just see what they're like," says Brown.
After much deliberation, a decision is made.
"I would rather like to make up a day rather than to worry whether the kids will get to school safely," states Brown.
1 to 3 inches of snow usually means school will still be in session. More than 6 inches is when kids are likely to get a snow day.
"I would rather like to make up a day rather than to worry whether the kids will get to school safely," states Brown.
1 to 3 inches of snow usually means school will still be in session. More than 6 inches is when kids are likely to get a snow day.
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