Classroom Update

Severe Weather School Closures? Here’s a Template to Get the Word Out.

Dr. Kara Stern
2 min read
Row of school buses covered in snow.

We’re careening from storm to storm, which means weather-related school closures.

Building & district leaders need a way to get the word out fast—and a school newsletter is perfect for that. Our severe weather school closure template has placeholders for all the key info you need to keep your community up-to-date. To get started, make sure to put the key info right in the title and be specific.

Which of the templates 👇🏽 is the easiest to understand?

Make sure folks know how to access school closure info.

Besides the bulletin you’re sending out, how else can families access info? Is it posted on your website? Is there a way to get text alerts? What about via the school’s MNS? Or even a local radio station! Right at top of your school newsletter, make sure to share how folks can access school closure info in the event of severe weather. You’ll likely have more than one weather-related closure, so make sure to keep duplicating this info.

It’ll take some folks a few repetitions 😉

What kind of stay-at-home day will it be?


You’ve got some choices! Traditional snow day, synchronous remote learning, or asynchronous remote learning. If you’re not sure, here’s a good post about what other folks are doing! If you’re choosing synchronous, post the invite. If you’re choosing asynchronous, let families know how to access the schoolwork. And if it’s just a good old classic snow day, how about including some resources for parents & caregivers?

Whichever one you go with, the more info the better.

And if you really want to get creative, you can follow this principal’s example 🤣

Get started here 👇🏽

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Dr. Kara Stern

Dr. Kara Stern began her career as an ELA teacher, then shifted into administration as a middle school principal. Dr. Stern is a fervent advocate for equitable communication and family engagement. She spent five years as Executive Director at Math for America, where she designed the professional learning community that exists to this day. An unexpected move to Tel Aviv launched her into the world of EdTech where she became the Director of Education Content for Smore and then the Head of Education Solutions at SchoolStatus. Outside of work, she indulges her love for reading, devouring two novels weekly, with a particular fondness for heists and spy stories.

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