The Niagara Catholic District School Board is telling parents to expect more school closures during bad weather days this winter.
Board officials sending a letter out saying that in a typical year, inclement weather days most often mean that transportation may be cancelled, but schools remain open, but that won't be the case this year.
Officials say usually staff and students in schools combine classrooms during snow days, but with COVID-19 cohorts that won't be possible.
"COVID-19 makes that impossible this year, so we are having to look at doing things differently this winter."
They are telling parents to expect more school closures either system-wide, or individual schools or families of school areas where the weather is worst.
"Mixing cohorts is not a safe practice this year."
The board says they may need to close individual schools if enough staff are not able to safely make it to work because of inclement weather in their area.
"On a day that a school or schools are closed, students will shift to asynchronous learning, to ensure learning continues. This is especially important in our secondary schools, where students are learning on compressed schedule and losing a day of school can be difficult to overcome."
Parents will be notified by 6 a.m. of any school or transportation closure.
CKTB will keep you up to date with Storm Desk 2020/2021 with a full list of cancellations online and on-air.