When school is closed due to inclement weather, the district notifies parents, students and staff in a variety of ways. While often redundant, student safety is our primary concern requiring a blanketed approach to informing all families. Typically, a decision to close school is made before 5:30am in order to give parents, students and the bus company enough time to respond. 

Following is an approximate timeline regarding how school closings are determined:

• 4:30AM: Assessment of road and weather conditions is done by Dousman Transport Company, law enforcement, field observations from Riverview administration and other local administrators.

• 5:00-6:00AM: Data from assessment is evaluated in terms of closing school, delaying buses and/or starting school later than usual. No announcement means school will operate as usual.

• Notifications: If the decision is made to close or delay the opening of school, the district will utilize its Skylert phone messaging system to notify families. Milwaukee television and local radio stations will be notified and broadcast the information.

Communication is then distributed as follows:

1. Riverview Website and all Social Media platforms are updated with an emergency message as soon as the decision is made.

2. All major media outlets (TV and Radio) are notified to include:

• WTMJ 4

• CBS 58

• Fox 6

• WISN 12

• West of the I

3. Each household will receive a phone call and e-mail message on all registered formats via Skylert, typically between 5:30am – 6:00am. Text messages are also available through Skylert. If you have yet to do so, we encourage families to opt into the district’s SMS messaging system here.  Please see below to make sure your information is set up in Skyward correctly to receive information.

The decision to close school is always a difficult one. Every effort will be made to consider the safety of the students, the safety of the faculty, and the convenience to parents when making such decisions. Your cooperation and assistance is appreciated. Weather conditions vary within a defined area. Even with a decision to operate schools, parents must make the final decision as to whether or not their particular situation warrants sending their child/ren to school.

Early Dismissal: A decision to dismiss school early is rare. The school will take all precautions to contact families and/or emergency contacts in the event that school would be closed early. If a decision cannot be made before noon, it is of little or no value to dismiss school early.Families will be notified by Skylert message sent to all registered phone numbers as well as receive an e-mail message. It is important to have plans for younger children when school is dismissed early. In the event a parent is not or cannot be home, arrangements should be made for the child to stay with a friend or relative. Parents should insist their children dress for protection against prolonged exposure to the weather as a safety precaution.

15 Minute Early Dismissal: In some instances, school may be dismissed 15 minutes early so drivers needing to travel more slowly can maintain approximately the same schedule.  A Skylert phone message will be sent out, but this will not be announced on TV, radio, or websites.

Delayed Start: A 2-hour delay to the start of school, rather than a full day school closure, is a possibility if weather conditions warrant such a decision. Poor early morning road conditions, dense fog, or frigid temperatures that are expected to improve significantly by mid-morning are examples of situations that may warrant a 2-hour delayed start.  With a 2-hour delay, bus routes will run two hours later than normal and school would begin at 10:15AM rather than 8:15AM. Morning breakfast would not be served, while lunches would be served at normal times. The school day would conclude at the normal time. We encourage all families to work on an alternate plan in the event that the start of school is delayed two hours.

While student safety is at the core of any school closing decision, a variety of factors are considered during the decision making process:

Access to Busing - Over 50% of Riverview students are transported. If buses cannot run and/or drivers are not available, school will be closed.

Area Districts' Decisions - Superintendents in Kenosha County share information and discuss their plans to stay open or close frequently throughout the process.

Weather Forecast - In cold weather only decisions (e.g. no snow or other conditions), As an approximate guideline, we use -20F air temperature or a wind chill of -35F as temperatures where we would consider closing school (other factors would be included).

School Facilities and Transportation - Our schools and buses need to operate at 100% of capacity to insure the safety of our students to/from school and throughout the day.

Advance Planning - Different than an inclement weather decision which is often made same-day, it is sometimes possible to announce a cold weather closing a day in advance to give families time to make arrangements.

In the event school is closed, all families will receive a SchoolMessenger call and email as soon as a decision is made. Text message notifications, through SchoolMessenger, are also available by opting in here.