King Wants To Make Early Decision On School Closures

Putnam County Director of Schools Corby King said he wants to make a decision on school closings as quickly as possible even if that means sometimes the decision is wrong.

King said the school system has a team of seven people that helps make decisions on school closings, including representatives from the EMA and school transportation. King said getting the word out quickly so parents can plan, remains his top priority.

“Especially as we have days available and we do right now early in the season the night before is always easier on families and the earlier we can on the night before,” King said. “I prefer to make the decision by 6pm or 6:30pm and let parents know.”

King said many residents may not understand that buses start rolling around 5:30am each morning, making a morning decision difficult.

“The last second for me to make that decision is 5:30am or I’ve got busses rolling,” King said. “I don’t want to make it that late. That’s hard on families, teachers, and everybody so we try our best to make it the night before but sometimes you just got to see and see what the weather forecast says in the morning when we get up.”

The system has 13 weather days built into the calendar, meaning students go to school 13 extra days to deal with weather issues. Another common question King said he receives, why do bad conditions in Monterey impact the entire system?

“By the Tennessee State law you can build 13 of those into your calendar by going 13 extra days a year,” King said. “According to the state attendance manual if you use an inclement weather day for snow to close all day or not then until you run out of days you have to close the system. Now if we have used all 13 of our days and then it just impacts Monterey then I can just close only Monterey.”

King said he relies heavily on his team to help make the best decision for the school system. King said it is tricky to make a decision sometimes as the weather is always changing in the Upper Cumberland.

“You’ve watched the weather here for a long time that the forecast is just so iffy,” King said. “We’ve got to see if it is actually going to happen.”