Winter weather has caused tricky situations for many schools this season. There certainly has been no shortage of snow days taken—meaning lots of opportunities to test your school’s notification process to families of closings and late openings. If you’re located in the Northeast, you may have ironed all of the wrinkles out of your process already. However, if you’ve had more than one confused communication with your families, faculty, and staff regarding changing operation hours, these tips will help you adjust your policies for future winters.
Take advantage of social media. Social media has taken a harsh blow as being the go-to communication platform lately. Especially concerning Facebook and its changed algorithm making it more difficult for organizations (pages) to turn up in people’s news feeds. However, if families know where to go for notifications, your social media pages can still play a valuable role in weather emergencies. In any emergency really. Don’t forget to include your school’s social media pages in your communication plan—they can work just as well for notifying families as they can for uniting alumni!
Have a phone chain. In the case of a power outage, people won’t be able to tune into the news or visit your school’s Web site. This is where traditional phone chains come in handy. Some schools have implemented text chains, and as long as all of your families and personnel can receive texts, this works just as well. It can be as simple as your Head texting five administrators who are then responsible for texting another five who are then in charge of texting another five …you get the idea. Everyone involved should know who they are responsible for contacting. And, of course there should be a back-up plan in the event one person is lucky enough to be vacationing in the Keys! Teachers can set these up with their classes in the beginning of the school-year (or now if you’re looking for a new process) to help keep parents informed.
Have your school’s closing policies clearly outlined in your handbooks. Faculty, staff, and families should have clear guidance to how your school communicates emergencies. These should be in your handbooks. If you’re adjusting your policies midyear, of course you’ll want to update your handbooks for next year, but, in the meantime, send out your adjustments as you would any communication—e-mail, social media, your Web site, etc.
Have a plan for unaware families. Even in your best efforts, there could still be that family that drops their child off when school is closed. If the weather isn’t bad they might not think to look online or check their phones, when in fact you can’t open because your school is still without power or has broken pipes. For situations such as these, have a designated faculty member who can safely make it to campus be there to inform families that school is closed. The last thing you want is one of your students standing outside in the cold without anywhere to go or anyone to assist.
Additional ISM articles of interest
ISM Monthly Update for Risk Managers Vol. 3 No. 1 Crisis Planning—It's Your Job
