How does Cumberland County approach snow days?

Dec. 30—If snow is predicted to fall, starting the night before and again at almost 4 a.m., Cumberland County’s Director of Schools William Stepp and his team take to the roads to inspect its conditions for the safety of the students.

This is just one of the steps Stepp and his team take to ensure and maintain the safety of the students when inclement weather occurs in Cumberland County.

Inclement weather is described as snow, ice, hurricanes, flooding, heavy winds and extreme cold.

Cumberland County Schools have 13 days built into its annual calendar to account for inclement weather days.

Schools are required by state law to maintain 180 days for school instruction, according to Tennessee Code Annotated § 49-6-3004.

According to the Tennessee State Board of Education website, “The State Board of Education sets the required number of school days each year, the number of hours in a school day, and how local districts may alter their calendars to stockpile inclement weather days.”

Stepp stated that many factors influence the decision to close the schools for inclement weather.

Road condition

Roads are necessary for all students to attend school, whether arriving via school bus or as car riders.

Stepp describes what he and his team do when they notice there might be snow.

“We still [are] up early about 4 a.m. and we’re all driving roads looking at stuff,” said Stepp.

Stepp considers the safety of the buses traveling to and from the schools an important factor in his decision to close the schools for inclement and hazardous weather.

Stepp partners with Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Department head, Kathleen Martin who accompany him as they drive the roads of Cumberland County looking for places that may be unsafe to travel to.

In addition to driving the roads, Stepp’s team also collects reports from residents.

“We combine all that information and that all comes to me and we end up on a conference call,” said Stepp.

National Weather Service

The Cumberland County School system watches the National Weather Service as its source for weather information.

“If we get wind gusts, at a certain number, my transportation supervisor, Ms. [Kathleen] Martin, will give me a call and say ‘I have a lot of concerns,'” said Stepp.

Stepp said that when they consult the National Weather Service, they are looking for elements to confirm information such as high wind gusts that would affect students traveling via school bus.

“Then that all culminates coming back to me, and I have to make a decision,” said Stepp.

Informing parents

and the public

Stepp said that Cumberland County School primarily uses automated telephone calls, Facebook and Twitter as their avenue to release information to parents for inclement weather.

“I’ll record my message during that time and then that message is [set at a time] that I give and that means the principals and everybody shares their information at that time,” said Stepp. “We try not to do it before that time. We want it all to go out at the same time so everybody gets the same message.”

Stepp’s team also pushes out the school closing information to local news sources such as the television station, newspaper and radio for further release.

Making the decision

The decision to close school for a snow day ultimately falls on Stepp. He said he uses information from the road conditions and the National Weather Service to guide his decision.

“The reason I have to do it so early in Cumberland County [is because] my counterparts in the Upper Cumberland usually have buses running about 6 a.m.,” said Stepp. “I have buses, Pine View buses running at 5, 5:15, [and] 5:30. So I have to make the call before other directors actually have to make the call if we wait till the day of. But most of the time, I try not to wait till the day of.”

When Stepp closed the school for the first time in December 2024, he cited multiple accidents on I-40 as a contributing factor to deciding to close.

Stepp said he prefers to let parents know the night before to allow parents time to make childcare arrangements.

Stepp said that if families require assistance with negotiating childcare for a snow day, they should contact their child’s school.

“We have all kinds of services to help families,” said Stepp. “So if they’ll just let us know or give us a heads up before snow days … and that way we can help them in any way we can.”

Jessica Ceballos may be reached at jceballos@crossville-chronicle.com

EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email news@emeatribune.com Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel