There will be no school tomorrow in Nicholas County, January 16, 2025, due to winter weather warning. This will be the final snow packet day, snow packet #5.
Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay on Wednesday January 15, 2025. Staff will report on a 2 hour delay. Breakfast is not served on a 3 hour delay schedule.
Mt. Lookout Elementary will be closed tomorrow, January 14, 2025, due to water issues. Employees do not report.
Nicholas County School will be operating on a 3 hour delay tomorrow, Tuesday, January 14, 2025. Staff is to report a 2 hour delay. Breakfast is not served on 3 hour delay days.
Just to clarify, Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay tomorrow, Monday, January 13, 2025. It was incorrectly marked on the state closure map as an early out for a brief period of time earlier today. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.
Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay with normal bus routes. Staff is to report on a 2 hour delay. Principals are to report on a 1 hour delay to check their school. Breakfast is not served on 3 hour delay days.
All Nicholas County extra-curricular activities are canceled for Friday January 10, and Saturday January 11, 2025 due to a winter storm warning.
Good Friday,
The Nicholas County Board of Education has created "snow routes" that hopefully will enable us to have school on days that the main highways are clear even if the secondary roads are not. This plan changes some bus routes so that students can be picked up on the main highways without the buses trying to navigate the back roads. Many times, the back roads may look ok, but snow or ice is such that there is no safe place for buses to turn around. This plan would affect most bus runs. Parents that live on the back roads would be asked to transport their children to the designated area where the bus could pick them up and take them to school. These snow routes could be used either on a regular schedule or on three-hour delays. Snow routes would be used in the evenings also on those occasions.
I am sure that there will be days where even snow routes are not possible, and on those days, we would have to close schools. Our hope is that we can have school on some snowy days and prevent us from having to make up so many days in late May or early June.
There will be hiccups along the way. It always happens when doing something new. Please be understanding of our purpose, and work with us to make this successful. This practice is implemented in neighboring counties to some extent, and we want to try it here.
We will post the adjusted runs on our website and Facebook page with a link on our website to easily look at your child's bus run and schedule. Our intention is to start using these as early as Monday, January 13.
We ask that you share this information with others and again please be patient as we would out the kinks.
Another important note.....if a parent cannot get their child to the snow route bus stop, they can send a note with their child the next day they are in school for an excused absence due to their bus not running the regular route. We have missed so much school so far, so please make every effort to get your child to school as much as possible for the rest of the year.
We are trying to get these snow routes posted on our Facebook page and county website today or this weekend at the latest.
There will be no extra-curricular activities for Nicholas County Schools today. Nicholas County Schools will be closed tomorrow January 10, 2025. This will be snow packet day #4.
Nicholas County Schools are closed Thursday January 9, 2025. This is snow packet day #3. The board meeting and expulsion hearings scheduled to begin at 10 am will still occur.
All extra-curricular actives in Nicholas County are canceled today. There will be no practices or games.
Nicholas County Schools are closed on Wednesday, January 8, 2025. This is snow day packet #2.
All extra-curricular activities for Nicholas County Schools' are canceled today. This includes games and practices.
Nicholas County Schools will be canceled tomorrow, Tuesday, January 7, 2025. This will be our first snow day packet day.
During this holiday season, let us all be thankful for the blessings that we all enjoy and the country in which we live. Life has many ups and downs, and we all have something going on in our personal lives or with our family or friends that makes us all less joyful and less thankful than we should be. Just look at the world around us. Life has a way of beating us down. But thank God for the blessings that we do have!
So, during this most wonderful time of the year, let us take a moment and remember the reason for the season, enjoy or family and friends, and work together for the sake of ourselves and our children. If we as adults feel defeated or act defeated, that rubs off on the people around us. Let us build each other up, say kind things to each other, and accept the differences that we all have. I wish you the best during not only the holiday season, but always.
Terrence Beam, Superintendent
Attention Bus Announcement! Please expect some bus delays this morning due to a traffic issue on Rt. 39. This may impact Ward Road, Groves Road, Groves Ford Road, and other stops in the Canvas area, specifically Bus 139 and Bus 123.
Summersville middle will host “Christmas Around the world” at SMS tonight from 5-7 pm. Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there and cookies and hot cocoa will be served! Please come and walk the halls to learn about customs and traditions from around the world’!
Today is Friday, December 6 and unfortunately, we had to cancel school due to continued icy side roads. Side road issues account for the majority of days that we must cancel school. Many of our students live on side roads that sometimes are not cleared as quickly as the main highways.
We are allowed to miss 10 days of school before we must make them up, according to state code. As of today, we have missed 4 days....3 due to weather and one due to a day in September we had to close because of safety threats to our students. We do not have to make up delays or early dismissals. Rarely, do we miss more than 1-2 days before January, but this year it is different. If we keep school is session when the roads are a little messy, we are criticized and even cussed for "putting kids out on the roads." If we do cancel, we get calls asking if they can still have practices or ball games. It is an impossible situation to deal with during the winter months. Each weather pattern is different and has to be addressed on its own circumstances.
When we cancel school, we run the risk of adding more days to the calendar at the end of May or early June which make everyone unhappy. We have 3-hour delays to give the roads more time to thaw or get cleared or for the temperature to go up. Some love it, some hate it. We don't serve breakfast on 3-hour delays because the cooks don't have time to fix and serve breakfast and then lunch an hour later. Most parents can feed their children breakfast on delay days. Delays also are an inconvenience for working parents who must be at work on time. They must adjust childcare arrangements. Early dismissals cause the same problems, but sometimes we have to get the kids home while we can. Our rule of thumb for cold temperatures, if the temperatures during the school day are at 10 degrees or lower or the wind chill is below 10, we either delay or cancel. Understand that some parts of our county get colder than others and we can't delay or cancel because one area is 8 degrees while the rest of the county is above 10. We have variances of temps and snowfall totals throughout our county. Richwood and Zela weather is greatly different, for example.
This post is designed to better inform the public all of the things that must be considered when making these decisions to delay or call off school. Our hands are tied when it comes to laws passed by the legislature. We have to be in school 180 days regardless.
We are working on a plan to use snow routes to be able to have school on days that the main roads are safe, but the side roads are dicey. That would involve buses only picking up students that live on the main roads and parents who live on side roads would need to get their children to the bus stop to catch the bus. I know that will frustrate some people also, but that is the best way for us to stay in session. We are permitted to grant an EXCUSED absence for students whose bus does not run on a particular day, and they cannot get to the bus on the main roads. Many counties use this practice. Our buses have chains but having school on days where they would have to used would be heavily criticized.
Please understand that we try to make the best decision based upon the information we get on nightly updates from the weather service. Mr. Stump and I talk almost every night and every morning before 5:00 a.m. to decide what we need to do. Sometimes we get it wrong, but not because of neglect. We talk to other counties and even citizens around our county to see what the roads are like in different areas of the county. For example, we were not expecting more snow this morning, but we have seen pockets of snow all morning. WV weather is challenging to predict and difficult to navigate with large school buses.
To answer topics about today, we will allow voluntary practices today and will allow the annual Craft Fair at NCHS to go on as scheduled.
I hope that this helps everyone better understand the process of dealing with winter weather in Nicholas County.
Terrence Beam, Superintendent
Nicholas County Schools are closed today, Friday, December 6 2024.
Nicholas County Schools will be operating on a 3 hour delay Friday December 6, 2024. There is no breakfast served on 3 hour delay schedule. Faculty reports on a 2 hour delay.