Good morning, Panthers~
A few people have inquired about this week's weather delays, so I wanted to share how the decisions are made. My main source for data is the National Weather Service website at weather.gov. You can click on central Iowa and then Marion County to get to the page specifically for Knoxville. If you click on the "Hourly Weather Forecast" graph, it will enlarge and provide an hour-by-hour prediction.
For cold weather, the threshold is -25º windchill. If it is -25º or below windchill at 7 AM but above this at 10 AM, school will be delayed 2-hours. If the windchill is still at -25º at 10 AM, school will be canceled.
On Tuesday and Thursday, the criteria was met to delay school. (Click links to see screenshots: Forecast Feb 18, 2025 & Forecast Feb 20, 2025.) On Wednesday, the lowest windchill was -19º which is why we had school on time.
The biggest challenge is deciding what time to make the decision as the forecast can change hour-by-hour. Having a late start or cancellation announced early in the morning can be difficult for many of our families, so if the meteorologists are pretty confident in their predictions, I try to make the call the night before. Most of the time it works out well, but sometimes the conditions don't materialize quite like they expected.
At this time, students will not need to make up any of the missed hours of school. We are getting close to the state minimum, though, so if we have additional days where school is canceled, we may need to use some of the snow make-up days identified on the KCSD School Calendar in May. Hopefully the weather will cooperate and keep us on track for the last day of school being May 22!
Yours in education~
Cassi Pearson, Superintendent