HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Many Central Georgia schools announced schools were going to work remotely or remain closed ahead of Tuesday's severe weather. However, a few schools stayed open.
Those districts include Laurens County School District, Dublin City Schools, the Peach County School District and the Houston County School District.
After Houston County schools released a statement about why they chose to remain in session during severe weather, folks reached out to 13WMAZ about their concerns.
It's important to bear in mind every district operates on their own set of rules, and most of them rely on local emergency agencies for information.
"The volume of rain, wind rating, flash flooding potential, and timing" are factors considered by the Bibb County School District's Director of Safety and Risk Management, David Gowan.
Schools in Macon-Bibb were closed for the day, but students had an asynchronous learning day.
Gowan sits on the executive policy group that makes that decision.
"It's a very important decision and it's not something we come up with in the last minute, there's a lot of things that go into the process," he said.
His job is to keep in touch with the Macon-Bibb Emergency Management Association about potential storms and their possible impact in his area.
Ultimately, Gowan said the school superintendent makes the final decision based on the information he passes along.
Houston County says they "continuously monitor conditions" for the safety of their students.
"The thing is we don't know where all of our children come from, what home they live in, is the electricity on for a warm meal? Is their parent going to be home with them or do they have to go to work that day?" Dr. Richard Rogers said.
Rogers is the deputy superintendent of Houston County Schools.
He says they follow guidance from emergency agencies, including the Houston County EMA and National Weather Service.
HEMA posted on its Facebook page on Tuesday the county was "under a severe thunderstorm warning until 10:30 a.m." and the NWS included Houston in a tornado watch until 2 p.m.
Rogers said they'd been monitoring the storm's trajectory for days, like other school districts did.
According to Rogers, the HEMA and NWS officials his district kept in touch with reassured them the storm would not be at its worst until after students were in school.
Elementary schools in Houston are the latest to start the day at 8:30 a.m..
He said they try not to cancel school so the parents in the community can rely on the school to take care of the students for the day without having to take off work.
"If we can get kids to school safely, that's where they need to be," Rogers said. "Even though there may have been a gust of wind near 40 or 35 miles per hour, the real storm came in after school was, you know, every child was in school, they were safely in that building, and that's what we were studying and preparing for."
Rogers reiterated school buses were not on the road to drop kids off home from school until after the storm had passed in the afternoon.
According to the district, "In the event of school cancellation, parents may be notified by telephone through School Messenger, our automated notification system. This system has the capability to call all 30,000+ parents within a matter of minutes, delivering a fast and accurate message. The message will also be posted to our school district’s Website, www.hcbe.net and HCBOE Facebook page. A Public Service Announcement request will also be sent to the local media, to include 13WMAZ TV, FOX24 TV, WMGT41 TV, WRWR TV-38, and all local radio stations. If a tornado warning is issued, bus dismissal may be delayed. If students are in-route to or from school and a tornado warning is issued, buses are required to stop at the nearest school and students/driver takes shelter there until the warning has passed."
Rogers said they keep school open for the 30,000 students who expect their needs are met at school, and parents have the ability to decide if they want to send their child to school or not, as well.
Dublin Schools told us they operated on a regular schedule based on advice from local emergency management.
Peach County responded to 13WMAZ's request for comment on Thursday: "During threats of inclement weather, Peach County Board of Education Administration closely monitors the weather radar to determine if Peach County Schools will remain open. We want to ensure students can be transported to and from school safely. In addition, we want to ensure our employees can travel to and from work safely. The safety of our students and employees is our # 1 Priority," Peach County Schools Public Information Officer Minnie Booker wrote.
Whether schools in Central Georgia close Friday is still up in the air; most districts say they don't make a decision until the day before with the latest information.