Don’t Miss a Winter Weather Announcement!

Superintendent News & Views

Don’t Miss a Winter Weather Announcement! 

By David Hill, North Tama Superintendent

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at North Tama Schools!  I hope our students are all enjoying their break from school and finding an opportunity to rest and rejuvenate in preparation for their return to school on January 3. 

I’m pleased that we haven’t had had any big snowstorms or ice storms that have disrupted our school schedule yet this school year. It’s always great when we can make it to Christmas break without a weather-related cancellation. Parents, teachers, school administrators and even many students agree – while we don’t like disrupting our schedule and taking away scheduled learning time due to severe weather, we understand that there are times that safety simply must come first. 

While we try to keep disruptions and calendar changes to a minimum, there are times when changing our schedule at the last minute is simply the right thing to do for the safety of all.  Our school district is responsible for transporting hundreds of young people every day. We need to consider the safety of everyone concerned when making the decisions about school cancellations, delays, or early dismissals. 

As Winter progresses, there will be days when decisions of this nature will need to be made. Fortunately, there is no need to sit by the TV or radio waiting to find out if school has been canceled or delayed. Anyone can have real-time text message notifications sent directly to their cellular phone. This system is available to anyone who may be interested, whether or not they have children in school. 

Parents of North Tama students are already included in our alert system for inclement weather notices. Parents - if you need to change your number, please contact the secretaries or log in to your PowerSchool Parent Portal account to update your information. Community members that wish to receive our text alerts regarding delays, cancellations, and early dismissals are invited to sign up for this service at no charge. Just visit the following link and enter your information: http://www.n-tama.k12.ia.us/textalerts.  If you signed up last year, you are still signed up and do not need to enter your information again.

While it’s great that we’ve made it to Christmas break without a snow day, keep in mind that Winter actually just began on December 21 – so there is plenty of time for Mother Nature to hit us hard with snow, extreme temperatures, ice, and reduced visibilities.  Be sure to get signed up for North Tama’s text notifications today so you don’t miss out on an important announcement! 

2017 has been a great year for all of us at North Tama Schools – not just weather-wise, but educationally as well. We’re looking forward to another great year in 2018!  I encourage you to visit my blog at https://redhawksupt.blogspot.com/ to keep up-to-date on my activities and opinions as your superintendent in the coming year. You are also welcome to follow me on Twitter (@DavidRobertHill) where I will occasionally post updates, photos, and other information not found on the blog.