Process for Communicating Inclement Weather Office Closings & Class Cancellations

It’s that time of year…time to start thinking about the winter months and the not-so-pleasant weather that comes with it. In preparation for the possibility of office closings and class cancellations due to inclement weather, please read below for the process that the Agency uses to communicate about these events. 

First, click here to read the Agency’s Inclement Weather policy, which can be found on page 47 of the Staff Handbook. 

Remember that the Temporary Remote Workplace Program can be used in extraordinary circumstances with supervisor approval. More information about the program can be found in the Staff Handbook. In an inclement weather circumstance, staff members who complete timesheets have the option of taking unpaid leave, even if they have other leaves available. 

If you have any questions about the Inclement Weather policy, contact Laura Gillon, Executive Director of Human Resources, at lgillon@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14416. 

Communicating Office Closures 
For the past two years, the Agency has used a system called SchoolReach to notify staff members of office closures due to inclement weather. (Everyone was quite happy we didn't actually have to use it last year!) Using the media to communicate our closings was no longer effective, so we decided to use SchoolReach and three other venues to communicate about office closures: 

SchoolReach 
SchoolReach is an online system that is able to send voice messages to staff when there is an office closure. When used, the service will call selected phone numbers in our employee contact list and will deliver a recorded message. The service will deliver the message to both live answer and answering machines. No answers (phones ringing over 40 seconds) and busies will be automatically retried twice in 15-minute intervals after the initial call. 

We will contact only those staff members who are assigned to offices that close. For example, if the Newton and Indianola offices are closed, we will only call the staff members who are assigned to those offices. Staff in other offices won’t receive a call. The calls that SchoolReach makes will be generated by the Agency’s Communications Department—they will not come directly from a person at SchoolReach. 

We have previously asked you to update your phone contact information in the Agency’s Employee Online system. If you have provided both a home number and a cell phone number in Employee Online, we will call you at both numbers in the event of an office closing. 

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING ABOUT SCHOOLREACH: 
When SchoolReach places a call, if your phone has caller ID, the ID will display the Agency’s main number, (515) 270-9030. When you get a call from the system, there will be a short pause at the beginning of the message. This usually is only a few seconds pause. Answer your phone as you normally would with “hello” and hold for the message to begin. Multiple “hellos” will delay the message. Please inform all family members who may answer your phone of this process. If you rely on your answering machine to screen calls, the system will detect that your machine has answered and will play the recorded message to your machine. The phone will ring for up to 40 seconds. Make sure that your machine answers after four rings or you may miss the message. 

At the end of the message you will be prompted to “press any key” to hear the message again. This can be helpful if a child answers the phone and hands it to a parent, who can then have the message repeated in its entirety. 

What can be done to avoid any problems in message delivery: 
• Do not say “hello” more than once. If the system detected your answer incorrectly, all noise will reset the three-second counter. 
• If, after you answer, the message does not immediately play, cover the mouthpiece of the phone to cutout all background noise. The message should begin after three seconds. 

Please make every effort to update your contact information in Employee Online any time there is a change to ensure that you do not miss important communication. Your phone data will be used exclusively by Heartland to communicate important information to you; it won’t be accessible to anyone else. 

Website 
We will post closing information on the front page of the Agency’s website (www.aea11.k12.ia.us). 

Cancellation Hotline 
We will record closing information on a “cancellation hotline” that staff members can call into at (515) 270-0405 ext. 14041. When you call in you will hear a recorded message that says the date and which offices are closed if there are closings. If there are no closings, the message will reflect that. 

Social Media 
We will post closing information on the Agency’s Facebook & Twitter accounts (www.facebook.com/heartlandaea & twitter.com/HeartlandAEA). 

Communicating Professional Development Class Cancellations 
If a professional development class is canceled, the cancellation will be communicated via the agency website, cancellation hotline and social media. 

If you have any questions about inclement weather communications, please contact Courtney Croatt, Communications Specialist, at ccroatt@aea11.k12.ia.us or ext. 14474.