The Decision to Close School

  • If an emergency or inclement weather indicates to school officials that it is unsafe to bring students and staff into school, a decision will be made to close the schools or implement a delayed opening schedule.

    We carefully weigh the decision to alter the school schedule. We are aware that many parents work and do not expect their children to be home earlier than the usual dismissal time.

    Days lost to inclement weather or other emergencies may be made up during the Spring Break holiday, during other holidays or at the end of the school year. 

    To ensure smooth dismissals on those rare occasions when schools must be closed early, we request that parents discuss emergency dismissal contingency plans with their children - where the children should go if they are dismissed early, whom they should contact. It is vitally important that your emergency contact forms are kept current. Please be sure to contact your school with any updates.

    See the School Hours page for hours in case of delayed opening or early dismissal.

Methods of Notification

  • The school district notifies the following media with school closing information as soon as a decision is made. We cannot, however, dictate the timing or frequency of media broadcasts. Please tune to the following media for school schedule change information:

    Your best resource is our district website - www.jacksonsd.org.

    Other methods:

Automated Calling System

  • We also use an automated dialing system that calls district households about a school closing or delayed opening.

    Please keep the following information in mind:

    • You must say "Hello'' when you answer the call because the message will not play until it hears a voice or an answering machine beep;
    • Because this is an automated system, the message may not start immediately. Some people automatically hang up if the callers do not immediately identify themselves, expecting the call to be a telemarketing sales call. Doing so will cause you to miss the message;
    • This service does not work with phone "zappers" that stop calls from automated dialers. If you wish to receive these calls any "zapper" must be removed;
    • The phone numbers that will be called are being taken from our student records package and staff lists. If your number has changed since you originally registered your child in Jackson and the school office was not notified you may not receive the call.
    • While this automated system is extremely helpful in helping us get these important messages out to the Jackson community, parents and staff should continue to monitor the other media we use to relay these messages. The automated dialing system is an additional method of notification but should not be relied on to be the only method of notification.
    • Please do NOT e-mail the district to ask whether school is closed. We are unable to respond to these messages in a timely manner.

Delayed Openings

  • The district may make a decision to implement a two-hour delayed opening to allow poor early road conditions to improve.

    This means students should be at their bus stops or at school TWO HOURS AFTER THEIR REGULARLY SCHEDULED TIME.

    In the event of a delayed opening AM Child Care is Canceled.


    Please note that if we must have a delayed opening, there will be no lunch periods at the HIGH SCHOOLS because of our legal requirement to have 240 minutes of student contact time during the school day. If we incorporated a lunch into the schedule we would not have enough student contact time to count the day as a full day of school.