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Closings, Delayed Openings, & Early Dismissals

 

General Information

On those days when weather or some other condition requires a change in the regular school day, such information will be broadcast over TV Channel 5, Good Day NY, Cable News 12 Westchester, WRNN-TV, WHUD 100.7(FM), WFAS 1230 (AM), WCBS 880 Radio (AM), WGCH 1490 (AM), and 1010 WINS (AM).

The information will also appear on all school and the district website. You will also receive a "robo call".

 

School Closing

Announcements will be made as close to 6:00 AM as possible.

 

Delayed Opening

Announcements will be made as close to 6:00 AM as possible and will include the length of the delay. Parents should continue to monitor the websites, media and any phone calls from the district to determine whether further adjustments are made, as it may be necessary to change to a further delay or to a closing.

As we cannot provide proper supervision for your children in the schools on delayed opening days, please do not drop your children off at the schools before the designated delayed opening time. Dismissals on days of delayed opening will be at the regular time, unless announced otherwise.

 

Transportation to Out-of-District or Private Schools

Parents who send their children to private school should be aware that the transportation provided by the school district to private schools follows the same schedule as the school district. For example, if the district schools are on a two-hour delay, all transportation to private schools will be delayed two hours. If the district schools are closed to due inclement weather, there will be no out-of-district transportation for private schools.

 

Early Dismissal

Announcement of such dismissal will be made as early as possible through a "robo call", on our websites, and through the media.

 

Emergency Dismissal Drill

Once a year, a district-wide emergency dismissal drill will be held. All Port Chester-Rye Union Free School District schools will dismiss early.

 

Distict Communication Protocols

Click here to view the English Version in PDF.

Para español, haga clic aquí.

 

District Wide Emergency

The District Office will handle any messaging if there is a District Wide Emergency. Generally, the District Office will also handle any messaging if there is any building that is in Lockdown or Evacuated, as the building administrator may not be able to do so. The authority to create and send district wide messages is limited to a handful of employees with unique usernames and passwords.

The message in Blackboard ConnectEd will be sent in “Emergency” mode so that all contacts for each child and adult are utilized. During any emergency notification, all media will be utilized (text, phone, email). In addition, the message will be sent to all families and in both English and Spanish (depending on the home language indicated in eSchoolPLUS).

Examples of District Wide Emergency messages may include but are not limited to: District Closings, Delays, Early Dismissals, or the Initiation of a Remote Learning Day; Safety Alerts; Notifications of Lockdowns, Bomb Threats, Evacuations, or Reunifications; and other Notifications of a District Wide nature.

 

District Wide Non-Emergency (Outreach)

If the District will be sending out a non-emergency message to the community, such as an outreach or notification message, it must be authorized by the Superintendent or designee before being sent. The authority to create and send district wide messages is limited to a handful of employees with unique usernames and passwords.

Best Practices:

  • The message in Blackboard ConnectEd should be sent in Emergency mode if the message needs to reach recipients in an urgent manner (see District Wide Emergency messaging). Outreach messages are for messages of a non-urgent nature.
  • The message should be sent to all families and in both English and Spanish (depending on the home language indicated in eSchoolPLUS).
  • All media should be utilized (text, phone, email) so that recipients get the message in multiple ways and whether their home language is English or Spanish.
  • Generally, only two messages should be sent for non-emergency (outreach) calls per event, one about a week before the event and one a day prior to the event. The district seeks to limit the number of outreach messages to two per event unless permission for more is granted by the Superintendent or her/his designee.
  • To the extent possible, messages should be 90 seconds or shorter.

 

Building Level Emergency

If a school building is dealing with a Lockout, Shelter in Place, Hold in Place, or non-imminent threat, the Building Administrator or designee should send an initial templated message (see above examples to personalize to building and circumstances). (In the event that the administrator is unable to send a message, they should contact the District Office and communications should take place as above).

Note: During any emergency notification, all media should be utilized (text, phone, email) by including the text of the recorded phone call in the tab/field for emails (up to 30,000 characters permitted) and in the tab/field for (SMS) text messages (up to 300 characters permitted). A message describing the protocol that was initiated should be sent immediately and follow-up communications can then take place describing the (non-confidential) details of the incident. In addition, the message should be sent to all families in the school and in both English and Spanish (depending on the home language indicated in eSchoolPLUS).

 

Building Level Non-Emergency (Outreach)

If a school building would like to send out a non-emergency message to the community, it must be authorized by the school building principal or designee before being sent.

Best Practices:

  • The message in Blackboard ConnectEd should be sent in Emergency mode if the message needs to reach recipients in an urgent manner (see above).
  • The message should be sent to all families and in both English and Spanish (depending on the home language indicated in eSchoolPLUS).
  • All media should be utilized (text, phone, email) so that recipients get the message in multiple ways. Do this by including the text of the recorded phone call in the tab/field for emails (up to 30,000 characters permitted) and in the tab/field for (SMS) text messages (up to 300 characters permitted). Do this in both English and Spanish.
  • Only two messages should be sent for non-emergency (outreach) calls per event, one about a week before the event and one a day prior to the event. Please limit the number of outreach messages to two per event unless permission for more is granted by the Superintendent or her/his