News from the Superintendent's Office

Icy morning took officials by surprise; superintendent thanks parents, bus drivers for patience and prudence

Dec. 21, 2011

Dear Cape Elizabeth Parents,

Thank you for your understanding of this morning's unusual weather. Unfortunately, we had reports of clear roads early in the day and a forecast calling for freezing rain not to move in until mid-morning. Public works and our police and fire departments were as caught off-guard by the rapidly changing conditions as we were. I assure you that if we had anticipated such significant icing and the poor road conditions that we would certainly have delayed the start to our school day.

There were a number of accidents in town this morning, some involving some of our high school students who were driving cars to school. We are grateful that there were no reports of injuries. I am pleased to report that all of our buses also arrived at school safely--though many arrived late.

My thanks to our bus drivers and our transportation staff for their careful and steady approach to this morning's bus rides and for having the wisdom to pull over when necessary and wait for road crews. My thanks, too, to you, as parents, for exercising your judgment in bringing your children to school or arriving late when you felt that was the prudent decision.

We take our responsibility to your children and their safety very seriously!

Meredith Nadeau
Superintendent