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Winter weather may sometimes lead to late starts instead of canceled classes
1/6/2010

Most school superintendents will tell you that one of their toughest decisions has nothing to do with personnel or curriculum or budgets – it’s that pre-dawn choice that schools face during severe winter weather on whether to cancel school or conduct classes as usual.
District 207 thinks a viable third option is available in some circumstances. On those wintry days, Maine Township High School District 207 might occasionally try something new this year: Delaying the start of classes by a couple of hours instead of canceling school for the entire day.
District 207 schools already have in place a Collaboration Day schedule, in which classes start at 9:40 a.m. If early-morning conditions on some inclement-weather days suggest that a couple of additional hours would give crews enough time to clear streets, sidewalks and parking lots, then District 207 will utilize its Collaboration Day schedule instead of canceling classes altogether.
“Losing instructional days is never a good thing, but particularly at this time of the year when we are heading into semester exams, if we are able to hold school, we need to do so,” said Superintendent Dr. Ken Wallace.
Transportation:
District 207 recognizes that one challenge to an unscheduled late start is that PACE suburban bus service will not have as many buses available as it typically offers on a late-start Wednesday or on a typical school day. We ask students to consider alternative arrangements in advance and to be prepared to implement those plans in the event of a late start due to weather-related issues.
Announcements:
Late starts – and school cancellations – generally will be announced by about 5:30 a.m. on District 207 and Maine East, South and West Web sites. District 207 also will make these announcements through its AlertNow telephone notification system. In addition, District 207 school closures and late starts will be reported to the Emergency Closing Center, which distributes the information through the following Chicago stations: WGN-AM (720), WBBM-AM (780), and CBS-TV (2), NBC-TV (5), ABC-TV (7), WGN-TV (9), Fox-TV and CLTV cable.
On late-start days, parents, students and staff may watch the District and individual school Web sites for updated information on the status of after-school activities.