If schools must be cancelled due to weather-related emergencies, the decision will be made no later than 5:30 a.m. You will receive an email and/or text message from “School Messenger.” Contact information for School Messenger is generated from your ASPEN account (if you do not already have an ASPEN account, click here). This announcement is repeated in The Hindley Wire.

When school is cancelled, no activities will be held in the buildings and all school-related and extracurricular events will be cancelled. A decision to close schools for the day, once made, will not change.

If schools are delayed due to weather, the decision also will be made by 5:30 a.m. The decision to have a TWO HOUR delayed opening is based upon the available information that travel and weather conditions are expected to sufficiently improve to open schools. However, parents should continue listening to designated radio and TV stations following the announcement of a delayed opening. If travel conditions do not improve or if they worsen, the delayed opening may be changed to a full day closing. Any such change will be communicated via the media and website sources. In the event of a 2 hour delay, Hindley will open at 10:25 am.

If weather forecasts and conditions indicate that an early dismissal would be in the best interest of our students and staff, we will communicate such a decision via radio, TV, our website, and School Messenger. Please note that there are two early dismissal times for weather-related emergencies depending on the timing of the arrival of inclement weather:

  1. In the event of a Morning Emergency Dismissal due to inclement weather, Hindley students, including kindergartners, will be dismissed at 11:00 a.m. All students will have the same bus stops as they had in the morning. No lunches will be served at school on those days, but elementary students will have a snack prior to dismissal.
  2. In the event of an Afternoon Emergency Dismissal due to inclement weather, all students, including kindergartners, will also have the same bus stops as they had in the morning. Lunch, however, will be served to all students. Please note that this early afternoon emergency closing time is the same time schedule as when we have regularly scheduled early dismissals for conference days and before certain holidays. Also note that, regardless of whether we have an emergency closing or a scheduled early dismissal, kindergarten students will be dismissed along with all the other students in grades 1-5. The afternoon emergency dismissal time is 1:00p.m.

In the final analysis, parents make the decision whether they will send their children to school on those days when inclement weather is not sufficiently serious to close or delay opening the schools. Rest assured that we will do our very best to make timely, rational decisions, based upon the best weather and travel information available at the time. Your understanding and cooperation is always appreciated when these decisions are made.

Click here to read the entire Emergency Weather-Related Information document on the Darien Public Schools website.