School Delays and Winter Activities

School Delays

The weather has switched and the temperature has dropped.  It's made for some crisp nights at Mikkelson Park for the lights, but it's definitely feeling more and more like the holidays.  With the changing weather comes the concerns with school delays and no school because of the weather.  I'm generally up around 5 to let my dog out and check the weather conditions for the day.  If things look questionable, I head out to see how the roads are throughout the districts.  My goal is to always make a decision by 6 a.m.  I don't always make it, but I try to give as much notice as possible. 

As soon as we know we know we are delaying or cancelling school, I notify the building principals who begin putting it on the various area radio and television stations.  In addition, we will post it on the district's Facebook page and website.  We also use the state's school alert system where you can sign up for emails and/or text messages when we delay.  You can sign up for that service here. 

If you have any questions on this, please contact your child's school office or the superintendent's office. 

Winter Activities

With the change in weather, comes the beginning of winter concerts, activities, and athletics.  If school is dismissed early because of inclement weather after school and evening activities will be cancelled.  If we don't have school for the day, we will decide by 1 if we will have evening activities.  The difference is simple, there are a few times where the weather is bad in the morning but clears off by early afternoon.  This sometimes gives time for the roads to be cleared and activities can go on as planned.  It doesn't happen often, but it could happen.  

I also want to take a few moments to discuss sportsmanship at school events.  We generally do a good job with this, but I felt it was good to share a few reminders.  The Iowa High School Athletic Association has a variety of positive guidelines for attending high school events.  One of the most meaningful to me is "Cheer for your team, not against the other team."  We're all there to support our athletes, so we want to be as loud as we can in support of them.  Let's show everyone that Chickasaws have class by being as loud and proud of our team even when the other team's fans may not be showing their best.  Please take a moment to discuss this with your child.  I know many people attend college and professional games and feel we can do here what they do at those games, but please remember in the case of professionals they are paid millions to be on the floor.  At the college level it is often thousands of dollars to be on the floor.  In high school, the only benefit is the privilege to wear your school's uniform.  It's not the same and we shouldn't be acting like it is.  

I want to take a few moments to discuss officials.  I have been an official and I've visited with a lot of officials over the years.  I can confidently say each one I've ever interacted with wants to and tries to do a great job.  However, we still hire officials who are human and sometimes mistakes do happen.  They didn't intend for them to happen, but they just did.  When this happens, sometimes the fans start yelling at the officials.  I get it in the heat of the moment something may come out, but when it goes on and on often one or two things happens.  First, the person may become flustered and make a second mistake which isn't good for anyone.  Second, when one team's fans are constantly yelling at the official, it's unlikely any breaks are going to be given to any team and most likely not our team.  Not that officials intentionally do that, but they may become aware of the yelling and become overly cautious or overly aggressive in calling penalties or fouls.  Again, neither is good for us.  Most times the officials call exactly what they see during the game.  We don't always like it, but they were much closer than any of us who try to make the call from across the gym.  In the end, if a mistake is made, the official knows it.  Yelling at them doesn't make it go away or help the situation.  Instead of dwelling on it, I would encourage you to yell something positive to our players as we need them to stay focused on the game.  

Finally, as a state we are experiencing a shortage of officials that is becoming very critical.  We don't pay them a lot to do this and if we continue to lose them because of our fan behaviors, we will be impacting our programs and our kids.  Please come to our games, cheer loud, cheer for our team, and support the refs with everything they do.  Go Chickasaws!