Weather delays & closings

Marion Community Schools closings and delays will be announced on:

• Our website
• Our Facebook pages
• Via the Parent Square app. Click here for info.
• Indianapolis TV stations 
• Local media outlets including the Chronicle-Tribune, and Channel 27 News.

For specific information about schedules followed on days when start times are delayed by one or two hours, please refer to your school's section of this website. 

When inclement weather is expected, a designated group of Marion Community Schools staffers, including the superintendent, monitors weather and driving conditions using physical observations, weather alerts from NWS, and information regarding local conditions from local emergency personnel. If conditions warrant, staffers are assigned to drive district roads to check conditions, keeping in mind bus needs and the fact that many of our students walk to bus stops and therefore may have extended exposure to the cold. Based on all of this gathered information, the superintendent will make the final call on whether to delay or close school.

 

We use information on wind chill and frostbite danger from the NOAA to help us determine when it is unsafe for our students to be standing at their bus stops or walking to our schools. This is one of the factors members of our inclement weather team take into consideration when making their recommendation on whether to delay school start times on any given day.

 

The care and safety of our students is always the top priority in all of our decisions.

 

>> Click here for a more in-depth look at our decision-making process

 

Marion Community Schools is using a new approach on days when weather makes it unsafe to be in our buildings:

 

Instead of automatically declaring e-learning days as we have the past few years, we will consider the specific circumstances (including whether iPads have been sent home with students) on bad weather days. If circumstances do not support e-learning, a closure will be used, and a make-up day will be scheduled and communicated with staff and families. 

 

All e-learning days called for weather are synchronous e-learning days. Minimum requirements for what can be considered synchronous e-learning are established by the Indiana Department of Education. 

 

Marion Community Schools maintains safety/emergency guidelines and plans, and copies are available to staff in every school building. We practice drills periodically with students and staff in each building, including evacuation, lockdown/intruder, tornado, and earthquake. In addition, emergency and disaster procedures are to be posted in each room. All students, staff, and any visitors present in an MCS school building during an emergency should follow emergency procedures and instructions.

 

When a tornado warning is in place, students will be held in shelter. A tornado warning is issued for a specific area because a tornado has been spotted by sight and/or radar. In case of a tornado warning, people in the warned area should immediately find shelter. Staff members will also be in shelter and supervising/directing/acting as needed. If a tornado warning comes near usual dismissal time, dismissal will be delayed and students will be held in shelter until the warning expires or is lifted. If buses are on the road for arrival or dismissal when a tornado warning is issued, they will comply with Transportation Department procedures and instructions, with the priority of getting all involved to the safest place possible as quickly as possible.

 

School buildings are among the safest spaces during a severe storm. Any parents or visitors on school property at the time of a severe weather warning are encouraged to come inside and shelter with us. All people inside school buildings at the time of a disaster are expected to follow disaster procedures and instructions. MCS officials and staff are committed to taking the best possible care of your children during a severe weather warning and any other emergency. Your safety is important to us as well. During a tornado warning, we encourage all parents and visitors not already at school buildings to follow all applicable safety procedures and instructions, and to shelter in the nearest available safe place.

 

Students will be allowed to leave school grounds only if a parent/guardian, or a person previously designated and verified by parents/guardians, picks them up and signs them out, providing that this option does not jeopardize the lives of those in shelter. We emphasize again that we encourage all parents and visitors in our buildings during tornado warnings to stay and shelter with us.

 

During a weather emergency, Marion Community Schools will provide as much information as possible via available channels, including our website, social media, local media outlets, and School Messenger. It is very important that all parents/guardians review their emergency contact information regularly, to make sure that your school has current information and an up-to-date emergency phone number.