Keeping Our Students Safe During Winter Weather
As your Superintendent, I want to share a look behind the scenes at how we decide whether to close or delay school when winter weather hits Lawrence County. While a few may think it’s just peeking out the window and making a call, the process is actually a team effort that starts long before the sun comes up.
Our goal is to make a decision by 5:00 AM if possible. We want to reach you before our buses start their routes and our first employees arrive at work. Sometimes we can make the call the night before, but since we can’t control when a storm starts, many mornings begin for us around 3:30 am.
Lawrence County is geographically very large. What looks like a clear road in your neighborhood might be a sheet of ice or a snow covered road in another part of the county. To get the full picture, I work closely with Travis Hughes from Emergency Management and our Transportation Director, Rick Blackburn. We are all out on the roads in different areas, checking conditions firsthand to ensure bus routes are safe.
I also closely monitor briefings from the National Weather Service. Because we sit right on the line between their Charleston and Jackson offices, I watch both to stay ahead of the curves.
How We Communicate
Once a decision is made, we spread the word quickly via:
- Local radio and TV stations
- The LC Schools website and social media
- Infinite Campus: This system sends an automated email, call, and text. If you have a student and aren’t receiving these, please contact your child’s school to update your info.
Understanding NTI and Snow Days
By Kentucky Law the Lawrence County School Calendar requires students to have 170 days of instruction and a minimum of 1,062 instructional hours. This time only counts when students are learning—it doesn’t include lunch or transition times.
To help stay on track, we use NTI (Non-Traditional Instruction) days. We are allowed 10 of these per year if needed. On an NTI day, students work from home so we don’t lose a day of learning. However, if we call a Traditional Snow Day, that day is fully closed and must be made up later in the year.
Our priority is always the safety of your children. Thank you for your patience and support as we navigate another Kentucky winter together. Here is to spring. May it be here soon!
