Yesterday, several school districts across Iowa cancelled school due to the severely cold temperatures.

Greene County Superintendent Tim Christensen says even though there’s no set number that they use to cancel school, the 30-degrees below zero wind chill yesterday is used as their guideline.  He explains the most important reason why they cancel school when its that cold out is because of student safety.

“There’s a multitude of things that can happen.  Whether they’re walking to school and could be out too long and get frostbite at those temperatures, somebody waiting at a bus stop too long (or) if someone’s car breaks down is an issue.”

Christensen points out another issue that they are still discussing is when to makeup school cancellations.  Since the district is operating on a 1,080 hour instead of 180 day format, Christensen talks about his biggest concern with making up missed hours.

“It’s about the learning (and) making sure that kids have the adequate time to learn not necessarily just about fulfilling a number.  So that’s a discussion that we’re going have its whether or not to recapture those hours back.”

Some of the options includes extending a few Wednesday early outs or adding them at the end of the school year, but Christensen notes that they won’t take away any vacation days.  Last year, the district cancelled school one full day and had three late starts due to the cold temperatures.

Currently, the last day of school for the 2014-15 school year is on May 22nd.