How is the public notified?
If school is canceled due to a weather-related event, parents and staff members will be notified via multiple platforms, including:

• TISD’s callout system including phone, email and text messaging
• TISD Website
• Social media: Facebook 

For the most instantaneous notification, visit our website:  https://www.tarkingtonisd.net/. Local TV stations will also be notified if a decision is made to cancel school. Please note that the district DOES NOT send out emails or other forms of communication if there are no changes to the regular school day or after-school activities.

When is the decision made?
Our goal is to finalize a decision by 5 a.m. or earlier the day of, so the information can be posted on the TISD website and the district can begin sending the automated emails and phone calls by 5:30 a.m. If we believe that the forecasts won’t change during the overnight hours, we may make the decision to alter the school day the night before. Finally, we understand and work to avoid making a decision later in the morning due to how this limits parents’ options when they are making child care decisions.

How do we make our decision?
During inclement weather situations, we make decisions to open or close schools based on careful analysis of as many relevant factors as we can gather, including:

• Numerous consultations with our local emergency management agencies and the National Weather Service. In the days leading up to a possible weather incident, we monitor local forecasts in the evening before the potential incident and in the early morning hours.
• Information on road conditions from transportation staff, local public works officials, and law enforcement agencies. We must give careful consideration to all roads that buses run routes on, including our rural roads, and the most potentially hazardous roads in the district. Even if the street in front of your house looks clear, travel elsewhere in the district may be dangerous. In addition, we must consider the risk to our least experienced drivers, our high school students.
• Amount of snow or ice accumulated and projected accumulations. We also consider whether or not precipitation is continuing.
• Building conditions, such as whether there is any interruption in our buildings’ electricity and heat.
• Parking lot conditions. We try to monitor the clearing and treating of parking lots and sidewalks.
• Temperature and wind chill. Some of our students walk to and from school and some have to wait outside in the elements at their bus stop.
• Weather predictions. We prefer not to make our decisions solely based on weather predictions, which are not always accurate, but sometimes it is unavoidable. If this is the case, we may make the decision the evening before.
• Consideration to what area school districts are doing. While every district has its unique situations, we do stay in touch with other districts to help guide decision-making.