Westport Emergency School Closing Calls

Many of us longtime residents are used to calling the snow hotline (341-1SNO or 341-1766) to see if school is cancelled or delayed. It's quick, easy and most of us can dial it with our eyes closed! Now the Town of Westport has implemented a new emergency call center, that calls each school age child's home with a pre-recorded message telling us that school is cancelled or delayed. Great idea..right? Not for some !

The week before vacation, Westport had a big snow storm, and school was cancelled. Now we know everyone relishes "the" snow day. We get to sleep in ! So when the pre-recorded message called us all at 5:30 am...many of us were less than pleased.

Today, there was a school opening delay of 2 hours. We all received not one but 2 calls at 6 and then 6:20 am. Many have cried foul...and want to know how to get their number off the list. The school maintains that they do not want to take anyone completely off the list, because then they won't get other emergency calls either.

So now what?

I spoke with Marge Cion, Assistant to the Superintendent, and here is her response:

Hi Linda,

We have been working with our technology staff and ConnectEd to find a manageable way to remove people from Community Outreach phone calls such as these and other informational items, while keeping them on the list for true emergency calls.

Dr. Landon is hoping that we will be able to send out a communication to parents within the next couple of days outlining these options.

Hope everything else is OK.

Marge


Marjorie Cion
Assistant to the Superintendent
Westport Public Schools
110 Myrtle Avenue
Westport, CT 06880