School Delays & Closures

Inclement Weather Guidelines for Athena-Weston School District

    At times due to inclement weather, the Athena-Weston School District must make the decision to close school or to delay the start of school by 2 hours. These decisions are not made lightly. It is a collaborative decision with input from the district’s transportation and maintenance departments, the National Weather Service, and other area sources as needed.  

In addition, it is important to keep in mind that our district covers a large geographic area and conditions can be very different from the mountain down to the river region. Our goal is the safety of all students and their families as we consider safe transportation to and from school. Therefore, the district may decide to delay or cancel a specific bus route if it is determined to be inaccessible by our school buses. Students on the identified routes will be excused from school on days when routes are impacted with an Inclement Weather Bus Schedule.  Families may elect to transport their children on route cancellation days. Inclement Weather Bus Schedules will be identified in the District School Closure Announcements posted on our website and via the district’s messaging system.  

School delay or closure notifications are typically posted on the home page of the district’s website (www.athwest.k12.or.usAWSD website) by 6 a.m. Delay/closure information also is also posted on the Athena-Weston School District’s Facebook page.

Additionally, local media are contacted about delays/closures:

• KUMA (92.1 fm or 1290 am) 
• KTIX (1240 am)
• KWVX (107.7 fm),
• KWHT (103.5 fm)
• KTEL (1490 am) radio
• the East Oregonian
• East OregonianWalla Walla Union Bulletin

If there is no notice of delay or cancellation on the Athena-Weston School District's website, please assume that all schools are operating on schedule.

 ParentSquare Phone Notification

In the event of a school closure, delay, or emergency situation, households will be notified by to 6:00 AM via the ParentSquare notification system. The system will begin calling out at 5:30 AM, in order to reach all students and staff in a timely manner.

To ensure your phone number is accurate to receive these notifications, please contact your student’s school office and update your contact information.

ParentSquare has both phone and text capabilities. The district will send text messages in conjunction with phone messages. 

Changes to how you receive messages can be set in your Parent Square account.