The extracurricular winter weather protocol for North Judson-San Pierre schools was covered when school board members met for their final meeting of the month last week.
Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin informed members that a particular protocol was established by former athletic director Kevin Cox and noted that the current athletic director, Greg Estok, requested one minor change.
In the first protocol, the practice hours were set between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Estok recommended changing that window so that they would run from 12 p.m. until 4 p.m. Zupin said that would provide more time to practice and would still give students time to get home before it gets dark.
Dr. Zupin shared some additional information about the procedure related to practices and cancellations.
She stated, “In the event that school is canceled for the day, they may allow varsity sports to have practices, on a voluntary basis. If parents don’t feel comfortable sending them, they don’t have to and there would be no negative consequences to that.”
Superintendent Zupin mentioned that in general, the school doesn’t have a ‘no event policy’ related to inclement weather because a number of factors and can influence that decision, such as changes to the conditions and scheduling conflicts with conferences and sectionals.
Zupin explained that the head coaches and athletic director are expected to communicate with one another on a case by case basis to determine the best thing to do. However, she said that she does have the administrative authority to override their decision, should she determine conditions are too dangerous for travel.
