Inclement Weather Policy
The Nursery will make every attempt to stay open during inclement weather in order to meet families’ child care needs. However, there may be times that we need to delay opening until 9 a.m. or close altogether if conditions are particularly hazardous. We encourage families to make back-up arrangements for these circumstances. We also take the parking conditions into consideration as a safety issue for families, children and staff when determining whether to stay open or not.
If Portland Public Schools are closed or delay opening, we will automatically open at 9:00 a.m. rather than at 7:00/7:30 a.m. This gives us time to have the entries and exits cleared and also allows extra time for our staff to travel safely. A Portland school cancellation will be an automatic two-hour delay for the Nursery and may NOT be announced separately.
If travel is expected to be extremely treacherous, the Executive Director may make the decision to close. If Portland City Hall closes due to treacherous weather conditions, the Nursery will automatically close as well. This closing will be posted as “Catherine Morrill Day Nursery” on WCSH6/Channel 6 and on www.wcsh.com. If Parents/Guardians prefer to receive notice via text, they can sign up for text alert service on the WCSH 6 website. Parents/Guardians are welcome to call us if they are unsure whether or not there is a change in our regular schedule. We do not have voice mail, so if we are open, someone will answer the phone at 7:00 a.m. or at 9:00 if there is a delayed opening.
Notification may be done via text messaging via the “Remind” program. Notification will be from the Executive Director’s cell phone. Please do not to respond to these texts and communicate with the Executive Director through CMDN’s phone/e-mail.
The Nursery will be closed if there is a parking ban during the day in Portland.
There are also times when we close early because the weather has deteriorated and we want to make sure that everyone gets home safely before the evening commute. Parents/guardians need to make sure that they are easily reachable by phone (and e-mail) so that we can notify them to pick up their child(ren) early in case we need to close early. The decision to close early will be made by noon.
