EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — It is pretty routine for area schools to cancel classes because of snow.
But on Wednesday, several districts kept students home because of the severe storm threat.
Some schools in the Metro East like the East St. Louis School District canceled classes on Tuesday ahead of a potential storm threat Wednesday.
This is after multiple superintendents met with the National Weather Service on a conference call.
Sydney Stigge-Kaufman is the Executive Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships for East St. Louis School District.
"We just really wanted to ensure the safety of our students and staff and not have regrets afterwards of what if," she said. "We heard the possibility of tornadoes as well as golf-ball-sized hail between 1 and 4. That's during the time of dismissal for our students and we definitely wanted to ensure that we're not putting our students or our staff at risk."
Usually, help from the National Weather Service comes in during the winter months.
So it's a bit more unusual to make these decisions in the spring.
"By making the decision the afternoon prior to the event of canceling school, it did allow families more time to plan and prepare accordingly," Stigge-Kaufman adds.
They are taking precautions, especially after an EF-3 tornado hit Edwardsville late last year.
"What happened in Edwardsville recently and there have been situations that have also happened in other areas of the Metro East that are on the minds of our community members and our families," she notes.
However, other schools on both sides of the river kept classes going.
That's the case for the Hancock Place School District in south St. Louis County.
They kept watching for storms for the chance of an early or delayed dismissal.
"It’s a timing-dependent call," Superintendent Kevin Carl said. "We are ready to do early if need be, we are prepared to hold and delay. One of the things we don’t want to do is to get buses out in a weather condition."
Carl was also on the call with the National Weather Service.
He said all of the school leaders get the same information but do what's best for their staff and students.
"What's challenging is that weather from St. Charles to Lemay is different. Schools have to be responsive to what's going on directly in their district," he said.