Winter weather: Austin ISD on protocol to keep students safe

When winter weather is forecast, Austin Independent School District works on making sure families are notified about cancelations or delays before they head out the door. 

What is winter weather plan for Austin ISD?

What they're saying:

"Our district has a specific protocol to dealing with bad weather. We have our office of management team, our superintendent, police department, and then myself, we get a report from the national weather service about up in upcoming weather," says Kris Hafezi, AISD transportation director.

The backstory:

Austin ISD works alongside city officials to make the decision about whether or not the road conditions are safe.

"We have employees like our transportation team. They report to work as early as 3:30, 4:00 in the morning. So, we also got to consider our transportation team, food service workers and custodians that they leave their home early. So, there is a lot that happens to make that decision," says Hafezi.

When temperatures are below freezing, AISD wants to make sure buses are operating as they're supposed to.

"Each terminal team shows up early, and they turn on the buses and the heaters to make sure that possibly we don't have delays and leaving if a bus possibly doesn't start or a heater doesn't work," says Hafezi.

And, of course, AISD bus drivers are trained to work in all sorts of weather.

"We have different trainings and safety protocols that we follow. Like what to do during high winds or during possibly if we have like a big a storm coming and we give out safety messages for our employees, you know, through our radios to kind of take all kinds of preventative measures possible to keep our employees and, of course, our students safe during their school bus training," says Hafezi.

The Source: Information from reporting by Jessica Rivera.

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