WILMINGTON, NC (WECT) – After severe weather caused severe flooding in some areas of the region, some community members were upset by the decision of New Hanover County Schools and Pender County Schools not to cancel classes on Monday, September 16.
NHCS Interim Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes released a statement Monday afternoon apologizing for the decision:
Dr. Barnes visited the WECT studio and admitted that he did not make the right decision in keeping schools open.
“If we could go back in time, of course we would … My main concern is that we talked about building trust with our stakeholders, with our parents, with our community, and that didn’t happen today. So I want people to trust that we have the best interests of the students in mind and that safety always has to be our number one priority,” Barnes said. “I want to apologize for the decision we made – my decision in the end – what it came down to. Maybe we could have foreseen all of this – we could have predicted it better. But student safety and reducing chaos is always what we’re striving for. And to me, there’s a trust that parents have in us and we need to make sure we live up to that expectation.”
He said the community had offered its help in these difficult hours.
“I want to thank the people who responded today, not only the New Hanover County employees, but our firefighters, police and first responders who made sure the children got home safely. In the future, we will err on the side of caution when dealing with incidents like this.”
We learned from this experience and, according to Dr. Barnes, next time will be different.
“Of course – of course – and we’re going to do better. You know, regardless of whether we could have predicted everything that happened today, it kind of caught everybody off guard, what matters at the end of the day is keeping children safe,” Dr. Barnes said. “I think the most important thing is to make sure we get ahead of things when we can – by predicting things a little earlier. And sometimes that means we predict wrong, but we want to be safe.”
New Hanover County will begin remote learning on Tuesday to ensure there is enough time for the water to recede and schools to be inspected for damage before children are allowed back in class.
Pender County Schools issued the following statement Monday afternoon:
