Winter Weather Communications

With the cooler weather and snow showing up in some parts of the District, it is important to know there are several ways the Enumclaw School District communicates in case of a school delay or closure.

Please make sure your contact information is up to date so you and your students are always in the loop should the weather change the school schedule or transportation.

Please reference the list below to obtain accurate information.

Thrillshare: Call/Text/Email

It is our goal to notify each family by phone. In a standard school closure situation, families will receive a call, text, and email by 6:00 a.m.

ESD Website and ESD App

All emergency delays or closures will be updated on the websites as quickly as possible. Families with the ESD app will also receive a push notification to their phone.

ESD Facebook

We do our best to post emergency delays and closures information on our district Facebook page.

Local News & Weather Stations

Information regarding local school district delays and closures is reported by the local TV and radio stations. They also post this information on their websites. If Enumclaw is not specifically mentioned, schools will be operating normally.

For more information regarding delays, closure, and bus routes please visit our website at 

https://www.enumclaw.wednet.edu/page/emergency-information

From Dr. Carey's Winter Weather Letter:

The information below will explain how we plan to make decisions to delay or cancel school days.

Around 3:30 AM on weather-impacted days, Transportation Supervisor Everett Cunningham, Director of Facilities, Athletics and Operations Phil Engebretsen, Director of Business Kyle Fletcher, and I will be out assessing road conditions. We will each drive a different part of our school district.

We gather together with information from our traveled routes and then determine what our transportation options will allow as far as a school day is concerned. Of the many factors that are considered, we evaluate road conditions for buses and staff/student drivers, amount of snow or ice, outside temperatures, weather forecast, and changing weather conditions. It is not uncommon to have delays in the early winter with little snow if the temperature is below freezing and not expected to rise much above freezing during the day. We find that road conditions for our buses are quite treacherous in these icy conditions. In late winter, the converse could be true. We could have several inches of wet snow, but the temperature is above freezing, making roads passable. We make the very best decision each time we are faced with winter weather conditions.

The key factor when deciding on whether we can have school on a regular schedule or a late start is if our buses can travel our emergency routes. Often this is just what we need to do in order to operate school. There are times we need to extend the emergency routes in a few locations. When this occurs, our drivers call families. Again, I am especially grateful to these families for their partnership and flexibility.

Dr. Shaun V. Carey

Superintendent