School Cancellations
Because our students come from a range of towns and communities, The Prout School is not able to control all the busing situations that could impact our opening in the event of inclement weather. For example, it is possible that some town schools and their town or district bus service may close while we remain open. We do, however, contract with Grey Goose bus service so that they will run if we remain open. If Prout does have school on a day that the schools in a student’s town cancels on account of bad weather, that student will still be marked absent from Prout if he/she does not come to school. However, in such an emergency, the absence will be considered excused, and it will not count toward the maximum of fifteen absences allowed per year.
We are located in South Kingstown, and a South Kingstown closing or delay will still affect our decision about whether to remain open, or to have a delayed start. However, since we now have multiple methods of communicating emergency information with our student and parent community, we are able to make closing decisions more independently and get that information to our families in a timely and efficient way. With this in mind, we will no longer automatically close or delay school in alignment with the actions of South Kingstown, or any other school.
Should stormy weather begin during the school day, necessitating the canceling of school activities, we will make every attempt to announce the cancellation before lunch. This will give students enough time to notify their parents. We do not recommend that you allow your child to drive to school on days of threatening weather.
All students who come to school on buses must return home on buses, unless parents pick them up. Parents are advised to not allow students to drive on days when ice or snow may result in treacherous driving. Should an unforeseen storm occur, students will not be allowed to call home to get permission to drive home early. Parents must initiate the process by calling the school.
In a dangerous inclement weather situation, The Prout School does not expect that a student attend school. In the event your town or community is undergoing dangerous weather, please keep your child home. We leave this final determination up to the parents.
Every effort will be made to place a school cancellation or delayed opening notice on the school phone answering system, and to also send “List Serv” and “SchoolReach” email notices. If possible, the school website will also carry this information. The service provided by “RI Broadcasters,” however, allows us to email closing and emergency information to them for immediate distribution to all major television and radio stations. All these methods help to assure that our message will get through in a timely way. The absence of any message means that school will open as usual, and our Prout buses will not be delayed.
The following stations receive school closing information from RI Broadcasters Association:
Participating Members: