P**P Happens!

That was an interesting little fiasco with the Eastern School District this AM, yes?

For those of you who don't know, early this AM the board sent out an email to radio stations/principals cancelling classes after the morning session. Their website was also down for many in the metro area at this time. Then, around 7:30, they sent a second email to the media indicating the first email was sent in error and that all schools were open all day. By this time, parents had sent their kids back to bed or sent them to school without lunch, or had received the automated emails and phone calls from the individual schools regarding the supposed school closure at noon. And, calling the schools was difficult, most schools don't have administrative or phone staff in until at least 8:15.

You can imagine the confusion of all us parents! And of the media! And even the principals I imagine!

....And the dismay and disappointment of the poor kids! Mine did not believe me when I told them they had to make lunches after all - school was open all day: "You're kidding right?.... I know you are. ... I know you're joking."

Oh, well. It will be interesting to see what comes of it today. Already this AM, folks were taking their frustrations out on the 99.1 Hits FM Facebook page. I think that was misplaced - the media postings (and even the automated principals' messages) were based on faulty information they received from the proper source - they were doing their best to help everyone out by passing along the updates they had received in good faith. What sort of state would we be in if they did not respond to the information they received? Think about it - the ESDNL site would definitely be crashed (as it often is on snow days), we wouldn't get emails from school or updates on the radio... we would all actually have to take it upon ourselves to call the schools and the school board, then get frustrated and upset that we couldn't get through and that there was no one there to take our calls!

The onus for this issue this AM does lie solely with ESDNL. They need to investigate the cause and offer an apology with a plan to avoid this in the future if possible. I am sure some employee there is having a VERY rough day - either from a human error and the subsequent fallout OR from a technical/system error and the subsequent fall out. We don't know the cause yet and so we should try to offer the same understanding we would want if we were in their situation.

Is it confusing? Hell yeah. Frustrating to get all the conflicting reports? Oh yes. Hectic when you have to scatter last minute to whip up a lunch you thought you didn't have to make? Yep. A pain in the hoo-ha to have to undo all the "snow-day" arrangements you made for childcare? Yes. But, hey, sh*t happens and 99% of the time it works, so I'm just gonna roll my eyes and roll with the punches ;-)