After the brutal winter weather the area received around the same time period a year ago, southwest Michigan received a green and slightly cloudy Christmas last month.

The reprieve from the snow and chill appears to be over for the time being, as residents of the greater Dowagiac area found themselves once again bundling up and digging out Monday morning, following the constant snowfall seen the day before.

The storm came just in time for the resumption of classes in the Dowagiac Union Schools district, following the traditional winter break for the holidays. With forecasts predicting additional snowfall and temperatures hovering at 20 degrees and below for the remainder of the week, the question of whether or not the district’s students will be spending some more time at home this season naturally springs to mind.

So far, this mild winter has been easy on the administration within the district. Leadership has only had to call off classes a single day this season, following a heavy but brief snowstorm on Nov. 18.

“We haven’t had to do a lot of plowing or salting outside our buildings,” said Superintendent Paul Hartsig. “Our budget hasn’t been negatively impacted by the winter so far.”

This week’s conditions have the district on guard, though. During this kind of weather, the administration implements its usual procedure of deciding whether or not to call off school for the day.

This process begins as early as 3 a.m. the day following snowfall, when the district’s Director of Transportation, Kevin Kelm, heads out on a set route to determine the condition of the district’s road ways. He also reaches out to officials with the Cass County Road Commission, local police departments and other surrounding school districts in gather their input.

Once the information is gathered, Hartsig and the rest of the administration make the final call as to whether or not to call off classes, aiming to inform the public by 5:45 a.m.

“We have a number of high school students who drive themselves to class every morning, so we want to them to be safe, our buses to be safe, and our parents who drive their kids to school to be safe,” Hartsig said.

Another factor that plays a role in whether to cancel school is the temperature. In conditions where roads can cause delays in when buses arrive at each stop, extremely cold weather can be extremely dangerous to children waiting to be picked up.

“We don’t want them to be standing out in the cold if they don’t have to be,” Hartsig said. “We want them to be picked up as quickly as possible, not exposed to the elements.”