Why Wake & Durham don’t regret closing schools Monday, even with no severe weather
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Districts canceled school Monday citing predicted high winds and bus safety risks.
- Officials rejected remote learning and early release due to timing and prep limits.
- Wake and Durham will use banked days to meet hours; classes resume Tuesday.
Triangle school districts are standing by their decision to cancel classes on Monday even though threats of tornadoes and hazardous weather conditions didn’t materialize.
School districts throughout central North Carolina — including Wake County, Durham Public Schools, Johnston County, Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro — closed on Monday in advance of the tornado watch issued by the National Weather Service.
“We don’t want to put our students and staff and drivers in harm’s way so that’s why we made the decision,” Crystal Roberts, a Durham Public Schools’ spokesperson, said in an intervew Monday. “We don’t regret it all. Our teachers are second to none and will pick up where they left off.”
The NWS had declared Monday a level 4 out of 5 “moderate risk” of severe storms, The News & Observer previously reported. The last level 4 day in North Carolina was March 18, 2021, and several tornadoes occurred.
But the tornado watches were lifted by 4 p.m. with the region only receiving scattered rain into Monday afternoon when schools would have been in session.
“I’m sure the ‘hype accusations’ will start pouring in,” meteorologist Greg Fishel posted Monday afternoon on his Facebook account. “All I can say is that based on a plethora of previous cases, this looked to be a very scary event. But sometimes it doesn’t take much to reduce that significant risk to just a minor worry.”
Early release not doable option
Alerts went out to families late Sunday afternoon and Sunday evening about schools being cancelled on Monday due to the threat of hazardous weather.
“We were told by our transportation officials that school buses are generally considered unsafe when sustained winds reach 30-35 mph, and gusts reach 40-45 mph,” Roberts said. “So we have to err on the side of caution with 60 to 70% of our students riding the bus.”
Wake’s message to families cited the predicted high winds and anticipated arrival of the hazardous weather during afternoon dismissal.
Sara Clark, a Wake schools’ spokesperson, said they had discussed having an early release instead of a school cancellation. But Clark said the projected timing of the storm’s arrival would not have provided enough time for the district to complete transportation before severe winds were expected to arrive.
“Our transportation system is large, and it takes time to move all buses through their routes,” Clark said in an email. “Because of that timing, a full closure was the safest option.”
Clark said early release might have been possible if the forecast had shown the severe weather arriving an hour or two later than projected.
No makeup day in Wake, Durham
Some school districts used a remote learning day instead of closing schools completely. Under state law, schools can use up to five remote learning days each school year that don’t have to be made up.
Clark said a remote learning day wasn’t considered practical in Wake because schools didn’t have enough advance notice to prepare and distribute instructional materials and assignments to students.
Roberts said Durham also decided not to use remote learning for a similar reason.
Both Wake and Durham will use “banked days” so students won’t have to make up the missed school time. All schools have a limited amount of extra time built into their schedules to stay above the state requirement of least 1,025 hours of instruction each school year.
Most Wake schools have at least three banked days still left. Most Durham schools are now out of banked days.
This story was originally published March 16, 2026 at 5:41 PM with the headline "Why Wake & Durham don’t regret closing schools Monday, even with no severe weather."
