In Warwick, school call rings too early for some
2:52 PM Wed, Jan 07, 2009 | Permalink
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By Barbara Polichetti WARWICK -- Today's storm did not find the School Department with the same staffing problems that left it lagging behind the rest of the state in clean up in December. But the early morning use of an automated phone system notifying parents of a delayed start of classes today did leave some parents bleary-eyed and unhappy. Phones started ringing at around 4:45 a.m., startling many people who rushed to answer what they thought were family emergency calls, only to receive a recorded message about the start of school. A second round of calls notifying parents of the cancellation of morning kindergarten sessions went out around 6 a.m. School Supt. Peter P. Horoschak, who had been up through the wee hours of the morning monitoring the weather, said he is still learning the computerized phone network and had not intended to launch the first call as soon as he recorded it. "I thought there would be a step that allowed me to set the time," he said. "Trust me, I was surprised as anyone when my own phone rang right after I recorded the message." Typically, he said, messages should be sent around 6 a.m. He and other school officials noted that they have to walk a fine line in deciding when to send out the calls. They don't want to alarm people with pre-dawn calls, he said, but also have to be early enough to give people time to make alternate arrangements. 
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This is unexceptable.. If you are the supt. then you should know how to run things. When the phone rings at that time the entire house is woken up to think of an family emergency.. This was a bad situation all around.
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What a bunch of complainers! They should be happy to get early notification of the delay. We got the same call from our son's Catholic school at 4 a.m. today. Hung up the phone and went back to sleep.
Good grief.
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This is an innocent mistake and to complain about it is crazy. The supt admitted it was an error. People really need to relax life is to short to blow little things out of proportion.
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Kristen, please spare us the negetivety! I could understand if it was the 3rd or 4th time it happened, but the 1st get over it!!! For the life of me, why is this even in the news??
I wonder if Kristen is part of the family filing a lawsuit against Verizon for broadcasting the Playboy channel?
With American troops being killed in Afghanistan, innocent children being killed in Gaza, and the problems here, I think we all can deal with a phone call!
Get a life or take a pill Kristen, you obviously take yourself way too seriously!
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seriously, people get mad when they dont cancel, they get mad when they do cancel, they get mad when they cancel too late, and they get mad when they cancel too soon. The guy made a mistake. Shouldnt you be happy that he was up that early so he could make a smart decision for your kids safety? Parents really need to stop being so adversarial with the schools.
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The call was early, the Supt. admitted his error and all of you should move on. Remember when you had to get up early to check the TV or radio to see if there was any delay/cancellation? Oh yeah, unacceptable, not unexceptable Kristin.
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This phone call was unacceptable. As a Warwick teacher, I was awoken at 4 am, and could not fall back asleep. I normally would have gotten an extra 2 1/2 hours of sleep. If the school department continues to do this, and teachers and students performance fails, where would the fingers be pointed then? Probably at the teachers and students, not the people who wake us up.
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Kristen, you are right. How dare they call so early. It is unACCEPTABLE that they keep kids out of school that extra hour. What is A family to do. Obviously some people need all of the time they can get in school so they know how to communicate.
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Ummmmmm Yeah, Kristen get a life!!!! I can see you're a little drama driven. As far as the teahers........ FIRE any of them that had a issue with this. Remember while the rest of us are still getting up for work you get to catch up on your sleep ALL SUMMER... We need new blood in the schools teaching are kids the teachers now just seem to teach them what it is like to be selfish and greedy. Get rid of them, It will help with the budget.......
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Yes, this is INDEED unexceptable. It is UNABLE to be EXCEPTED. You certainly can't except this. Due to the unexceptability, there will be little to no excepting going on. Instead of going around excepting things willy-nilly, lets spend more time rijgekting things.
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Why does this article exist? Isn't this a tough economy with relatively high unemployment? Newspapers are going by the wayside, yet they still feel the need to keep 'ol perrywinkle around to publish articles about a school that accidentally called a little too early in the morning? Sounds like there isn't much happening in Rhode Island/So Mass. I'm climbing up the wall in anticipation of next weeks article about the crime mystery of the stolen toothpick.
WILL THE CULPRIT BE PUT TO JUSTICE, OR WILL THE RIGHTFUL OWNER'S TEETH GO UNPICKED?!
-Perrywinkle
World-class, hard-hitting journalism.
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