Asheville City Schools issues reminder on inclement weather policy and procedures

With winter weather on the horizon, Asheville City Schools has issued a reminder on its inclement weather notifications policy and procedure:

From Asheville City Schools’ Charlie Glazener, Executive Director of Community Relations/Communications:

Here are a few reminders of how we handle inclement weather notifications for Asheville City Schools:

We attempt to make decisions before 6 a.m. or the night before when conditions dictate. We do not make phone calls early in the morning (let sleeping children and shift workers remain that way) unless we change a status already announced.

There are about 20 ways you can get status information. The quickest is the WLOS App, because that’s our first call. But you can also check the crawl on our four ‘local’ TV stations, listen to 10 radio stations or visit the ACS, Citizen-Times and WLOS web sites. We also push out notifications via Blackboard email and texts. Friend/Follow us on Facebook,Twitter or Instagram. There you might see or post some snow pics from around our neighborhoods…..and conditions can really vary from one place to another. We also place the status on our ACS Hotline — (828) 350-6188. 

Here is the process for a Two-Hour Delay: When a Two-Hour Delay is issued, all district schools will open their facilities two hours later than normal. Central Office will open at 9:00 a.m. Buses will begin routes two hours later than usual and regular classes/instruction will commence two hours later than normal. 

Sometimes weather conditions dictate an Early Dismissal. In that case we try to give you as much notice as possible and we use all our notification channels including every phone number you have provided to your school’s data manager. However, since conditions in these mountains can change rapidly, the lead times may be short. 

How do we make inclement weather decisions? Info here.

Please keep your contact info current with your school. In many cases we do not have current email information and/or mobile phone numbers. In fact, hundreds of folks will not receive this email. We will try to call to remind them.

Bottom line: Safety is paramount in all these inclement weather conditions. We will make decisions with the well-being of your children, you and our staff as a guide, and we hope that you will do the same as you consider travel in sketchy (My grandchildren use that word a lot!) conditions.