SJSD officials discuss school cancellation process, talks difficulties of making decision

By: Chris Roush, News Director

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — St. Joseph School District officials are monitoring the extreme cold coming in on Friday.

KQ2’s weather team is monitoring Friday’s temperatures and wind chill. The Storm Tracker team is forecasting a low of -3 Friday night.

Assistant Superintendent Robert Hedgecorth said district officials work together to determine if and when school will be closed.

He said the administration monitors the amount of forecasted precipitation, which isn’t a factor for Friday morning, communication with the bus company and wind chill.

“We’ll really try to look at the timing of when those wind chills are at their worst,” Hedgecorth said. “We start to get nervous when, you know, it starts to hit -15, -20 wind chill. That doesn’t mean we’ll automatically cancel school if it hits those levels. That’s just one major factor.”

Hedgecorth said there is a system in place for the administration to work together to come up with the plan that also includes communicating with surrounding school districts.

He said district officials do factor in that 70% of students are on free and reduced meals, so they know it’s important to try to get them to school.

“We have to look at the demographics of our students,” Hedgecorth said. “We look at where they live. We look at 70% of our students are on free reduced lunch. So we know that, you know, they depend on coming to school to get that nutrition. We obviously don’t want to put anybody in harm’s way for that.”

KQ2 will continue to provide updates on school closings. Click here to see a full list of closings.