Sterling, Dixon schools will delay start of class because of cold

STERLING — Sterling Public Schools and Dixon Public Schools will delay the start of class by two hours because of a weather advisory calling for wind chills at minus 20 degrees.

Bus schedules for both districts will also run two hours later than normal.

Sterling Public Schools said because of the two-hour delay, there will be no AM Pre-K classes at Franklin or Jefferson elementary schools, wrote Matt Birdsley, the district’s director of curriculum, in a post on the district website. The school will serve breakfast meals two hours later than normal.

Based on announced schedules, doors at Sterling High School will open at 9 a.m. and class starts at 10. Doors will open at Challand and Lincoln schools at 9:40 and at Franklin and Jefferson schools at 9:50.

For Dixon Public Schools, classes will begin at 9:45 a.m. There will be no Pre-K or early bird activities at Dixon High School.

However, Whiteside Area Career Center will be in session and the bus will leave DHS at 9:30 am.

Reagan Middle School, which already was on an remote-learning adaptive pause, asked students to check Canvas or the website for adjusted Zoom times.

Wind chills of such severity can cause frostbite on exposed skin in less than 30 minutes, the advisory warns.

The National Weather Service in the Quad Cities expects the overnight low temperature to be -13 degrees with an accompanying northwest wind of 5 to 10 mph.

The high Wednesday will be about 8 degrees. Winds will shift in the morning to a southwesterly direction. By Wednesday night, it will be about 5 degrees with -10 wind chills.

Around the area

Other schools and districts announced changes to their schedules because of the weather. One school district made a point to say it would be in session, as scheduled.

Newman Central Catholic High School, Oregon schools, and Fulton schools announced 10 a.m. start times for classes. Morrison schools said it would delay classes for two hours.

Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico said it would cancel classes for the day.

Polo schools said while the school buildings would be closed, classes would be conducted using full-day remote e-Learning tools.

Chadwick-Milledgeville schools said it would have a normal schedule.