Winter Weather Transportation and School-Closings

What happens in Mansfield ISD when temperatures drop and our area has inclement winter weather?

Here is the latest on the procedures, considerations, and decision-making during winter weather events:

1. At or before 4:00 AM a decision is made to deploy the Transportation Weather Team staff.
2. Between 4:15 AM and 4:30 AM, the Weather Team visually inspects various areas across the district of streets for icy, wet, or dry roads along with monitoring the weather information channels.
3. The Weather Team contacts the Director of Transportation with their road information.
4. Road conditions are analyzed along with other related information available from other school districts.
5. If roads are questionable, the Superintendent is contacted after 4:30 AM (but before 5:00 AM) to discuss findings and recommendations.
6. The Superintendent makes a decision by 5:00 AM whether or not to close schools.
7. We then use our standard communication channels if any changes to the district schedule require adjustment: District Homepage, Weather page, phone messaging system, local media outlets, e-mail (Newsletter list for parents/staff/ community) and via Twitter - @mansfieldisd.

Other considerations and notable information

• Many area school districts' transportation directors have a local phone network so they can stay in communication and provide insight to what is happening road-wise with each other.

• How does weather forecasting play a part in the decision-making process? While the Weather Team reports actual conditions, what is expected to happen weather-wise is just as important to the decision process.

• What about early dismissals? If winter weather conditions worsen during the day, we determine if an early release is needed to get the students home sooner and bus drivers back to the bus barn safely prior to darkness. We try to make that decision prior to 10:00 AM in order to adequately coordinate the dismissal process. Generally an early release will only affect the middle schools as we would typically dismiss them at 1:30 PM since currently they end the day the latest. We then continue normal schedules for high, elementary, and intermediate schools. This provides for the least disruption of classes and gets our buses off the road prior to darkness when ice becomes the most dangerous.