January 9, 2024

From the Office of the Superintendent

We want to thank our TCSS families for your patience as we dealt with this morning’s weather conditions and school delay. Our number one priority is the safety of our students, faculty, and staff. In making a decision to delay or close school, TCSS consults closely with meteorologists. The Tuscaloosa County School System is the largest geographic school system in Alabama, making weather-related decisions particularly complex for our district. The most up-to-date forecast information we had last night, specific to Tuscaloosa County, resulted in the decision to move forward with plans for normal operations for today. It wasn’t until just after 6 am that information became available to us that resulted in a system-wide delay.

We strive to make the decision to close or delay as early as possible. We typically announce a morning delay or closure the night before, if at all possible. While today’s decision to delay happened much later than we would have liked, it was a necessary decision due to the safety of our TCSS community. We learn from every experience and continue refining our weather safety plans. We appreciate our families’ cooperation in dealing with the active weather we often have in our area. With the possibility of more active weather in our area over the next week, we urge you to stay close to the ways you receive weather information and official TCSS information (TCSS phone calls/text messages, Facebook updates, TCSS/school web sites). If you are not receiving automated phone calls and text messages from TCSS when weather closures happen, please contact your school office to make sure your contact information is correct in PowerSchool.