We Apologize for the Delayed Messaging

We sincerely apologize that the robocalls and emails regarding the 2-hour delay did not go out last night as intended.

Yesterday evening, it was our intent to open schools on time as the storms were to end by late evening and initially we thought the threat would be behind us. However, the rainfall was even heavier than expected and lingered longer. There were also numerous reports of issues with power and road flooding in Hopewell and in areas surrounding us. Initially our plan was for our emergency operations staff to check on all buildings well before daybreak to ensure they are ready to open on time but due to the conditions being worse than expected, we decided that having a two hour delay was necessary for us to fully assess the situation at the schools. With these worsening conditions and resulting decision happening so late in the evening, we neglected to double check that all messaging was completed as we normally would (the website and media posts went through, but not the calls/emails). We very much regret that this meant some students and families were at schools this morning because they were unaware of the 2-hour delay. When we learned shortly after 7am of the issues with the calls and emails, we immediately got the messaging out and went to our early start schools to provide a warm place for students who may have been dropped off.

You should expect better messaging from us and we sincerely apologize. We will be reviewing our procedures to ensure this does not occur again.