GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Holland Public Schools Communications Director Jason Craner told 13 On Your Side that while safety is top of mind when deciding on closing school, they're also keeping in mind students who use free or reduced meals provided by their school.
"In a district like Holland, who the only meal they'll get other than dinner is here at school, so calling off school means no breakfast, no lunch for those students," said Craner.
Around 77 percent of Holland students take part in the program
"There's really a lot of other things to think about other than the weather when you're calling a snow day," said Craner.
What are other factors that go into a snow day decision? Road safety, Craner says.
"While we're paying attention to the weather forecast, we're really looking at the road conditions that morning about how they're doing, how road crews were able to keep up over night, because we could have gotten six inches, but the road crews knew it was coming and we're ready to go and we're able to get some salt down early and the roads are really in great condition," he said.
Grand Rapids Public Schools Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Public Larry Johnson explains when they try and make the call to close their schools.
"Our teams will be out at 4:30 in the morning so that we can make a decision in Grand Rapids by 5:30, no later than 5:30," said Johnson.
Johnson added that they also look at advice from experts who use the roads everyday to help them make their decision.
"We're in contact with some meteorologists, Grand Rapids Police Department, as well as Kent County Road Commission and the city works department from Grand Rapids," said Johnson. "We used to talk with cab companies but as you know there's not a lot of cab companies left anymore, but we look for those individuals whose traveling those roads at night within the city limits of Grand Rapids."
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