By Kyle Schatz
As of now, at Ponte Vedra Highschool (PVHS) there will be school on Veterans’ Day, and ten Wednesdays will not be an early release day, starting Nov. 13, and ending Feb. 12th. There are a lot of decisions that take place before cancelling school for hurricanes. Conversations take place a couple of days before an oncoming storm arrives and the decision is announced to the staff, parents, and students.
“When it looks like a hurricane will hit the area the emergency operation center calls a meeting with key stake holders such as the emergency management group, police, firefighters, superintendents, and the mayor, to discuss the timeline for when they need to make decisions based on when the storm is going to hit,” said Heather Schatz the assistant director of public affairs for the city of Jacksonville. After that, the school district’s superintendent is responsible for deciding whether to close the school or leave it open. If the governor declares a state of emergency, it will speed up the process of deciding to cancel school or not. If the superintendent decides to close the school, they must report the decision to close the school to the Florida Department of Education’s Commissioner. After they decide that school will be closed, the district will inform parents, teachers, and staff about the closure.
“When it looks like a hurricane will hit the area the emergency operation center calls a meeting with key stake holders such as the emergency management group, police, firefighters, superintendents, and the mayor, to discuss the timeline for when they need to make decisions based on when the storm is going to hit,”
Heather schatz
The first two days that school is closed due to hurricanes, the schools do not have to make them up. For every additional day of school cancelled the school will have to make up. When schools are considering closing one of the main things they consider is if the school will need to be used as shelters. Shelters are discussed regardless of whether
Evacuation is needed or not. Once it is decided that if the storm will have a big enough impact on whether to open shelters or not, and if it has a big enough impact, they will cancel school, so it can be a shelter. It normally takes around a day to turn the school into a shelter.
Another thing that is taken into consideration is how safe it is for students and teachers to go to, be at, or leave school. If the winds or storm surge are bad to the point where it will cause power outages, or safety hazards school would be canceled. When they pick schools to be shelters, they pick them in different geographic areas of the city, so they are easily accessible for everyone.
Graphic by Ryder Navarra
