November 5, 2015
We are guided by one fundamental truth in making the decision to open or close for a day: the safety of students, staff, and families. This is always our primary concern, not just in situations like these but in all that we do. When the National Weather Service alerts us to the fact that temperatures are dangerously low and they post wind chill warnings and weather advisories, it is important that we heed their public service advice since we, institutionally, are responsible for many, many more people than just ourselves. The wide age range of our students is also a factor as we make our decisions based on the collective best interests of everyone in our community.
Our students come to us from many different areas throughout the Twin Cities: from 60+ zip codes, some of them a 45 minute or more drive to and from the MPA campus, and some of them on buses. If there are travel, traffic, or road advisories, we also heed these warnings in order to have reasonable expectations that everyone can get here safely. We certainly also look to our peers in other schools–both like and not like us–as we navigate the challenges of deciding to open or close in the best interests of the community. Situated as we are within the North St. Paul/Maplewood/Oakdale Public School District, we take into consideration their decisions as well as those of many other districts and other peer independent schools. Given the benefit of collective wisdom, it’s difficult for us to justify staying open when so many other districts and schools have decided to close. Many considerations, beyond those we commonly hear about in the news, are part of their decision-making process to open, close, or start late.
If the MPA administration makes the decision to stay open, families, staff, and faculty are encouraged to make a decision based on their own personal circumstances and decide if it is a safe situation. Student absences will not be counted against attendance.
In the instance where MPA would close, the administration would make every effort to make a final decision by 6:30 a.m. We would use several avenues of communication to convey that decision, including the school-wide alert system, the MPA website at moundsparkacademy.org, the official MPA Facebook page, and alerting the major Twin Cities news stations of KSTP, Kare 11, WCCO, and Fox9. If school is closed, all extracurricular activities are cancelled and there will be no Panther Club or Panther Den available.
