Schools Around East Bay Cancel School for Thursday

Numerous Bay Area schools are closing Thursday because of a potentially dangerous wind and rainstorm moving into the area. All San Francisco Unified School District schools and school districts in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin and Sonoma counties have canceled school for Thursday. In Alameda County, public school districts in the cities of Alameda, Berkeley, Oakland and Hayward have announced closures.

The West Contra Costa and New Haven school districts have also announced closures. Most schools in Marin County are closed. A full list of closures is available at www.marinschools.org/SafeSchools/Pages/EmergencyServices/school-status.aspx

Several schools in Sonoma County are closed as well. A list of Sonoma County closures is available at www.scoe.org/pub/htdocs/storm-update.html In addition the Novato Unified School District has already announced schools will be closed Friday.

Most school districts anticipate being open on Friday, though San Francisco Unified officials said a final decision will be made before 5 p.m. Thursday. Oakland district officials said in a statement, “This is not a decision we make lightly, but given the severe weather predictions and the safety implications for students and staff, we want to take every precaution in order to safeguard our community.”

District officials said that what the National Weather Service refers to as a “powerful Pacific storm” with heavy rain and wind gusts “poses a significant safety risk for our students and staff.” It will be a workday for Oakland schools central office staff but they will work from home, district officials said.

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SFUSD Superintendent Richard Carranza said in a statement, “We don’t want to risk having our students injured or seriously delayed transporting to and from school. In addition to student absences, the storm could result in large numbers of staff absences, which could then lead to inadequate supervision of our students.”

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