Prince William County Public Schools: A Message From Dr. LaTanya McDade - Code Red Decision For January 3

Press release from Prince William County Public Schools:

01/02/2022

January 2, 2021

Dear PWCS Families, Employees, and Community,

Due to the forecast for inclement winter weather tomorrow, Monday, January 3, 2022, PWCS will be closed “Code Red.” The safety of our students and staff is always our highest priority when making decisions to change our operations. In making our decision, PWCS reviews information from emergency management, meteorologists, and state highway administrators about potential road conditions. I also make this change with consideration of the impact on learning and the critical services our schools provide in person to students.

As I shared with you last month, the pandemic has impacted student learning significantly, and we must maximize the time available to provide instruction for our students, along with providing the critical services our students receive at school. As such, we want to minimize any closures due to weather and their impact on teaching and learning.

This storm is forecast to be a short duration event, primarily impacting tomorrow morning with varying conditions across the County. This means some parts of the County may have significant snow while others will have less. As such, this would have been a Code Orange. However, due to the weather arriving the first day following the winter break, this inhibited the ability to ensure students were prepared to access instruction remotely asynchronously (not live). While this timing was not conducive to Code Orange, please know that this remains an option for this winter to minimize disruption to learning to the greatest extent possible.  

As shared last month, Code Orange may also be used in lieu of days that in previous years were delayed openings. Due to the ongoing national shortage of bus drivers, PWCS continues to have a number of double and triple bus runs. These runs make it logistically impracticable to have delayed openings. 

For frequently asked questions, and more on inclement weather decisions and procedures, visit the PWCS website. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation as we work to make this a safe and productive winter season for all.

Sincerely,

LaTanya D. McDade, Ed.D.  
Superintendent  
Prince William County Public Schools 

This press release was produced by Prince William County Public Schools. The views expressed here are the author’s own.