KingSpry is proud to announce Episode Fourteen of our education law podcast, the Legal Lunch Room, “How Supers Make the Tough Calls.”
Each episode, we invite education attorneys and school leaders to share how current education law trends and court decisions impact school boards, students and our community.
“It is a high stakes question that immediately grabs everyone’s attention this time of year… will there be school tomorrow?” says education attorney and podcast host Jonathan Huerta. Safety questions, forecasts, bus schedules, flex days and communicating with the various members of the school community… it is clear a lot goes into the decision of whether or not to call a snow day.
Just as those first snowflakes started to fly, we sat down with local superintendents Dr. Braden Hendershot from Bangor Area School District and Dr. Matthew Link from Northern Lehigh School District to talk about the process.
“About this time each year, I’ll send out a short narrative on what to expect if there’s inclement weather,” Dr. Link says.
“We have a set of procedures that we follow as an administrative team,” Dr. Hendershot notes. “ We make sure we are all on the same page, myself, our chief of police, our Director of Transportation, Director of Buildings and Grounds, to make sure we’re calibrated on what times calls have to be made, exactly who’s speaking to whom, what our internal mechanisms will be on those days, who’s posting on the website… just to make sure we have our bases covered.”
Education attorney Paige Gross also joins us to discuss what the law has to say about snow days. “Unfortunately, there are no statutory rules or laws that school districts have to follow when making these calls,” Gross says. “There is no requirement for school districts to have any policies on the subject. However, it’s always recommended. One, so the school district and superintendent have a plan to follow, but also so the community can anticipate what’s going to occur on those days.”
Legal Lunch Room is produced by Steel Pixel Studios with music by Don Loughney and research assistance for this episode by Lauren Harrison. This podcast is a production of KingSpry’s Education Law Practice Group. It is meant to be strictly informational and does not constitute legal advice. Should you have any questions about any of the topics discussed on the show, please contact your local legal counsel.
We hope you’ll join us. Listeners may tune in to Legal Lunch Room on all major podcast platforms.
