OSSD Severe Weather Center

• Direct consultation with the Jackson County Office of Emergency Services: The information that they receive is accurate, and in many instances, it predates what you will see on the local media outlets. For this reason, we prefer to not make our decisions based on weather predictions, which are not always accurate and constantly change.
• Information on road conditions from transportation staff and from law enforcement agencies that serve our area: We give careful consideration to the bridge conditions and flooding in the district. Even if your street looks clear, travel elsewhere in the district may be dangerous. Also, we recognize that many Ocean Springs High School students drive to school, and we consider their driving inexperience as well when we make a decision. 
• Building conditions (such as whether we have electricity and water service).
• In the winter months, we consider temperature and wind chill. Please remember that some of our students walk to school and some must wait outside for the bus.
• We also monitor playground temperatures and modify recess time based on advisories (hot and cold weather). 
• We are mindful of what other school districts are doing, and we share information with other local districts. However, OSSD independently makes its decisions about whether we will open or close.

Principals and department heads will directly notify staff once a decision is made about opening or closing schools. We will contact families by SchoolMessenger if we plan to delay opening school or if we plan to close schools for the day or have an early release due to impending weather.  As we consider this an emergency notification, we will communicate this information to families in three ways: email, phone call, and our OSSD Severe Weather Center website. It is imperative that everyone keeps their contact information current in order to receive notifications. We will also post information on the district social media sites and share it with our local media outlets.