January 29, 2019
Dear Parents/Guardians:
School will be canceled for Wednesday, January 30, 2019 and Thursday, January 31, 2019 due to extreme wind chills.
I also want to provide you with an explanation of the confusion that took place last evening when an individual apparently hacked into our District mobile site and made changes to a District-issued message which made it appear as though the decision to cancel for today (Tuesday, 1/29) was made last evening. Due to the predicted weather forecast which had temperatures in the -20 to -25 range for Tuesday, canceling school was not anticipated for today and a final decision about school closure was planned to be made early this morning as was communicated; we did end up closing for today as well, but I did not get the official notification out until this morning to avoid even more possible confusion. Unfortunately, the message on our mobile site was changed by an anonymous person to reflect that school was, indeed canceled for Tuesday prior to it truly being cancelled and was subsequently circulated via social media. This deliberate act with obvious malicious intent caused confusion and inaccurate information to be circulated in a relatively short period of time. We are actively working to identify the individual responsible.
Decisions for school closures are not taken lightly and the best interest of our students and staff are always paramount in the decision-making process. Having an additional complication with someone maliciously causing confusion in the process is unfortunate. I prefer to communicate closings to parents and staff as soon as possible, but circumstances such as this makes this even more difficult.
Thank you to those who have been patient and understanding as we worked through these issues last evening. We appreciate everyone’s need for accurate communication in a timely fashion, and do try to provide that in every circumstance.
If you have concerns or questions about any of this information, feel free to contact me at 715-424-6701 or by email at [email protected].
Again, ALL Wisconsin Rapids Schools will be CLOSED on Wednesday (1/30/19) and Thursday (1/31/19).
Sincerely,
Craig Broeren
Superintendent
